Orsted and Eversource have acquired a site in New York state to serve as a regional operations and maintenance hub for the 880MW Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm.
The Research Way facility is located in Brookhaven Town, East Setauket.
The hub will house members of the permanent staff of Sunrise Wind and South Fork Wind, among other teams, including positions such as technician, warehouse coordinator, contract manager, head of site, and other offshore and onshore jobs.
The facility will be renovated to include custom office and warehouse space to handle marine coordination, contract and site management, as well as spare parts storage, among other activities.
The Orsted and Eversource Sunrise Wind joint venture is also progressing its plans to make Port Jefferson harbour the home port of the first US-flagged, Jones Act-qualified service operations vessel (SOV).
The SOV will support Sunrise Wind, the South Fork Wind project serving Long Island, and other projects in the JV’s portfolio.
Together, the Research Way O&M facility and the Port Jefferson harbour home port will create about 100 permanent jobs for the region, as well as indirect and induced jobs, the partners said.
Orsted Offshore North America chief executive David Hardy said: “We are proud to play a part in New York’s transition to renewable power.
“This is a major moment and inflection point for New York and Long Island, as we move from promises made to promises kept for New York.
“We are working hand-in-hand with the stakeholders here on Long Island and are delivering good-paying green jobs, as well as clean, renewable energy for New York.
“As the global leader in offshore wind, we are looking forward to helping our friends in New York reach their ambitious green energy and economic recovery goals.”
The O&M facility will also serve as the base of operations for Orsted Offshore North America’s head of operations, Mikkel Maehlisen.
He said: “The deep water harbour in Port Jefferson, combined with the talent pool and resources on Long Island, make the area ideally-suited to serve as a regional O&M hub for our Northeast offshore wind farms.
“We’re eager to begin our work there and become members of the local community.”