Revolution Wind delayed by a year
The state’s first surge of electricity produced by an offshore wind farm will not reach Connecticut in 2025 after all.
Revolution Wind, the 65-turbine wind farm under construction and slated to be the first to deliver power to Connecticut, will not start delivering electricity to the state until 2026 because of delays in construction of an onshore substation, Danish wind farm developer Ørsted announced on Thursday.
The 704 megawatt wind farm, 15 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, was slated to be in operation by 2025 and remains under construction.
Ørsted, which is constructing the wind farm in partnership with New England-based Eversource Energy, said delays are related to a substation being built by Eversource in the Quonset Point Business in Park in North Kingstown, R.I. The state-owned property is a former Navy base and Naval disposal site. Substations serve as gateways for the electricity from wind farms to the electrical grid.
Ørsted said ground contamination was anticipated at the site of the substation but turned out to be worse than expected. It has led to a change in the plans for construction.
“Revolution Wind thoroughly researched the site, including the past uses of the property as a US Naval disposal facility,” Ørsted said in a statement. “Prior to commencing construction, the project initiated a soil sampling campaign that revealed the nature and extent of the contamination was more significant than anticipated. The overall elevation of the substation was increased by 5’-7’. This reduced the amount of potentially contaminated soil that would need to be removed, processed, and disposed, and avoided a substantial delay.”
Ørsted, in a statement on Friday, said that despite the delay, construction of Revolution Wind continues to progress. Turbines for Revolution Wind are being delivered, assembled and shipped out of State Pier in New London where vessels have been coming and going over the past few weeks. There is not expected to be an impact on operations at State Pier.
“Construction for Revolution Wind continues to progress, with more than half of the foundations installed and turbine installation imminent,” the statement said.
Installation of the monopile foundations, the steel cylinders driven into the ocean floor to support the turbines, started in May. Ørsted and Eversource have not yet announced the date for erection of the first turbine.
Revolution Wind is slated to supply 400 megawatts of power to Rhode Island and 304 MW to Connecticut, enough to power an estimated 350,000 homes. It is the first project in the U.S. to supply power to two different states.
Ørsted, which recently completed the 12-turbine South Fork wind farm in New York waters, is one of four companies to submit bids to Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for an additional new offshore wind farm. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has not yet made an announcement on whether it planned to accept any of the bids.
The delay comes at an awkward time for Ørsted, which was among companies involved in the offshore wind industry to suffer major losses and drop plans for wind farms in recent years because of escalating costs.
Mads Nipper, group president and CEO of Ørsted, in a statement on Thursday called the delay “unsatisfactory, and we continue our dedicated efforts to de-risk our portfolio.”
Revolution Wind is similar in size to Vineyard Wind, a wind farm that was under construction off the coast of Massachusetts but forced to suspend operations when a blade on one of the turbines broke apart on July 13 and left debris at local beaches.
Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Iberdrola and GE Offshore Wind. The blades used at on the turbines at Vineyard Wind are larger than the ones being used for Revolution Wind and produced by a different company.
g.smith@theday.com
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