Van Oord’s offshore installation vessel Aeolus has installed the first of 12 turbines at the South Fork offshore wind farm in the US.
The 132MW project is the first offshore wind project in waters off the state of New York.
Van Oord was chosen by the 50-50 joint venture partnership between Orsted and Eversource for the transport and installation of wind turbine generators for South Fork.
Aeolus has recently undergone a major crane upgrade, which includes a new, longer boom on its existing crane.
With this new 133 metre-long boom Aeolus is capable of installing the newest generation of turbines for offshore wind projects.
The installation work at South Fork Wind will be supported by a fleet of American vessels including barges, tugs and other support vessels.
Van Oord’s US partner Crowley will use its US-flagged barge, Ocean Class tug and Alert Class ship assist tug to transport the hardware from State Pier in New London, Connecticut to the offshore project site.
New York union workers are supporting South Fork Wind’s wind turbine installation under the National Offshore Wind Agreement, a project labour agreement between Orsted, Eversource and North America’s Building Trades Unions.