South Fork Wind offers a glimpse at what’s possible as offshore wind power projects struggle to gain traction

Published

7 months ago

October 13, 2024

admin

Pippa Stevens | CNBC

GREENPORT, N.Y. – Roughly 35 miles off the east coast of Montauk, New York, 12 turbines gently spin in the wind at Orsted’s newly developed South Fork Wind farm. The project, which connected to the grid earlier this year, is the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S., providing enough power for 70,000 homes annually.

It’s a needed bright spot for the U.S. offshore wind industry, which has faced a number of challenges getting off the ground. Rising interest rates and supply chain snags have changed project economics, forcing some developers to return to the market in search of higher contracted prices. Other projects have been canceled entirely.

Soren Lassen, head of offshore wind research at Wood Mackenzie, said the U.S. offshore wind industry is going through a needed readjustment, and that while the long-term outlook remains intact, progress has been pushed out. South Fork Wind offers tangible evidence that wind projects can work.

A long-term investment

Traveling by way of a high-speed ferry from Greenport, New York, it takes about two hours to get to South Fork Wind. It’s hard to get a sense of just how large these turbines are until you’re right under one: they tower 460 feet above the water, with blades that are each longer than a football field. And that’s just what the eye can see. Underwater, each tower sits atop a custom foundation drilled into the seabed. Apart from the gentle “swoosh” of the blades – only audible when right next to the turbine – the wind farm is otherwise quiet in the middle of the ocean.

South Fork Wind’s substation, which is connected to the power grid in East Hampton via a subsea and then underground cable.

Pippa Stevens | CNBC

Each turbine is connected to an offshore substation – the first of its kind built in the U.S. – which is connected to the local power grid in East Hampton, New York, via a 65-mile subsea and underground cable.

South Fork Wind was not without opposition. The waters off the Long Island coast have long been a place for recreational and commercial fisherman alike, some of whom opposed the project. Residents in Wainscott – the summer community where the cable comes ashore – also fought it. This led to Orsted adding extra space between each turbine so that the area remains open both to transit by pleasure and fishing boats, and the company buried the onshore cable beneath the beach and local roads.

Denmark-based Orsted is not new to the area. The company developed the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm, which is northwest of South Fork Wind, in 2016. And northeast of South Fork Wind sits Revolution Wind – a 65-turbine project that Orsted broke ground on in 2023. In July, Orsted began construction on Sunrise Wind, which is also in federal waters off the New York coast.

Offshore wind projects are long-term investments, with work starting years before a single foundation is even drilled into the seabed. Securing the necessary permits is a lengthy process.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management first awarded the leases for South Fork Wind in 2013, which where acquired by Deepwater Wind. Orsted acquired the company in 2018 and partnered with Eversource Energy to start building the project. Onshore construction began in February 2022, with offshore construction following in 2023. In September, Skyborn Renewables, a Global Infrastructure Partners portfolio company, acquired Eversource’s 50% stake in both South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind.

South Fork Wind, which is 35 miles East of Montauk, New York.

Pippa Stevens | CNBC

Offshore wind developers typically use power purchase agreements, which are signed ahead of construction. Put simply, it’s a long-term agreement between the owner and a third party who agrees to pay a specific price for the power – oftentimes for 20 years or more. At South Fork Wind, the power is being sold to Long Island Power Authority.

While this model provides long-term certainty, it can also be a huge obstacle if project costs balloon. Orsted is developing Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, but last year it walked away from Ocean Wind 1 and 2, which were slated to be built off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

“Macroeconomic factors have changed dramatically over a short period of time, with high inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks impacting our long-term capital investments,” David Hardy, CEO Americas at Ørsted, said in October 2023. “As a result, we have no choice but to cease development of Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2.”

In May, Orsted agreed to pay New Jersey a $125 million settlement.

The financial problems are not unique to Orsted. Equinor and BP ended a joint venture to develop a project in waters off the coast of New York in January. Equinor took sole ownership of the project and re-entered the market in search of better prices – securing a deal for Empire Wind 1, but not for Empire Wind 2, which remains on pause.

High rates, supply chain struggles

The two main obstacles around building offshore wind farms are interest rates and the supply chain. Offshore wind is capital intensive: it takes a lot of money to build one of these projects in the middle of the sea, and as interest rates rose companies’ cost of capital surged. At the same time, raw material and labor costs accelerated out of the pandemic. It’s hard to begin construction without a PPA locked in, but if costs rise significantly above initial estimates, the PPA might not be high enough for the project to be feasible.

Each turbine at South Fork Wind rises 460 feet above the water.

Pippa Stevens | CNBC

Much of the supply chain is also highly specialized. There are only a few vessels in the world, for example, that can lay the underwater cables. Turbine installation vessels are also industry-specific. The offshore wind industry is not new globally, but it is in the U.S., meaning just a few years ago a domestic supply chain was virtually nonexistent.

But some of those supply chain constraints are beginning to ease as more and more projects get off the ground. Dominion Energy is building the first Jones Act-compliant turbine installation ship in Brownsville, Texas, which will be used to transport supplies to its Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Once the project is completed, the ship will be contracted out to other companies.

‘Not disappearing’

Offshore wind port hubs are also popping up, including the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, the Port of Virginia and Connecticut’s Port of New London. Orsted’s domestic supply chain now spans more than 40 states, and work for South Fork Wind took place in New York, South Carolina, Texas, Rhode Island and Connecticut, among other states.

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently approved its tenth offshore wind project – this one in Maryland – in what it called a “major milestone.” But the Biden administration’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of this decade remains far off.

South Fork Wind’s offshore substation is the first-of-its-kind built in the U.S.

Pippa Stevens | CNBC

Vineyard Wind, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts, is the only other commercial-scale offshore wind project currently powering homes. Developer Avangrid had to pause construction over the summer after a blade broke off and fell into the ocean, with parts ultimately washing ashore on Nantucket beaches. GE Vernova, which made the blade, called it a “manufacturing deviation” related to “insufficient bonding” in the blade.

Two other projects – Block Island Wind Farm and Dominion’s two-turbine Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Pilot Project – are operational, although they are much smaller, powering 17,000 and 3,000 homes, respectively.

The U.S. does have 58 gigawatts of capacity under development, according to American Clean Power, but some of those projects won’t come online for years, and there is no guarantee all of them will be built. The industry group estimates that $65 billion will be invested in offshore wind by 2030, supporting 56,000 jobs – up from 1,000 today.

“There are cycles in everything, and now we’re going through a negative cycle,” said Wood Mackenzie’s Lassen, in an interview. “That means that what is now driving the adjustments to price are, instead of success, failures.”

But Lassen is encouraged projects are pushing forward.

“The positive thing is that then there is some readjustment,” he said. “That means the sector is not disappearing. It’s bouncing back, but it is different.”

Orsted’s Block Island Wind Farm. The turbines are supported by jacket foundations, rather than the monopiles used at South Fork Wind.

Pippa Stevens | CNBC

Don’t miss these energy insights from CNBC PRO:

Environment

Whisper Aero ultralight aircraft scores $500K for “UltraQuiet” electric jet motor tests

Published

30 mins ago

April 26, 2025

admin

Whisper Aero ultralight aircraft scores 0K for

Whisper's "UltraQuiet" propulsion system to power acrobatic glider

Along with Tennessee Tech, Tennessee-based ultralight aircraft company Whisper Aero has secured a $500,000 grant to help advance the company’s innovative electric jet motor concept off the drawing board and onto the testing phase.

Earlier this month, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced plans to award $500,000 to Tennessee Tech and Whisper Aero through the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative.

“We look forward to using these award dollars to place students in internships working directly with Whisper Aero leaders,” said Tennessee Tech President Phil Oldham. “By learning from an electric propulsion innovator like Whisper Aero, our students will gain invaluable perspective and can take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it right here in Tennessee.”

The grant will see a Whisper Aero glider fitted with a pair of the company’s eQ250 electric-powered jet “propulsors” for UltraQuiet flight. Tennessee Tech faculty and students will carry out copper-bird ground testing to ensure the safe integration of engines, batteries, and controllers, and kickstart Tennessee Tech’s new Crossville Mobility Incubator.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Those propulsors, by the way, are super cool.

UnltraQuiet WhisperDrive; via Whisper Aero.

Whisper Aero’s main claim to fame is its innovative UltraQuiet WhisperDrive (above). It’s effectively an electrically spun ducted fan jet engine that uses a large number of stiff composite fan blades inside a lightweight, acoustically treated duct. With so many blades, the Whisper Aero propulsor can push more air than a conventional prop while spinning much more slowly. As such, the “blade passage frequency” moves up to more than 16,000 Hz – outside the range of most human hearing but not, supposedly, high enough to freak out the beagles.

The Whisper Aero ultralight is effectively an Aériane Swift3 glider fitted with a pair of Whisper’s eQ250 propulsors, each capable of up to 80 lbs. of thrust. The Ultralight has a wingspan of over 40 ft with a maximum L/D of 35:1 and can be stressed to a design loading of +6/-4g, making it capable of some pretty impressive acrobatic feats.

The Swift3 glider is designed for a low speed, low power cruising speed of 45–55 knots with “just” 6.5 hp. Power-off glides from a few hundred feet showed a low sink rate, and a climb rate of 1,250 ft/min with full self-launching power (in other words: the Whisper glider doesn’t have to be towed by a launch vehicle, like a conventional ultralight glider).

Quiet cool

Dual WhisperDrive fans deliver ~160 lbf of thrust; via Whisper Aero.

Range under full power is about 109 miles with current battery tech, but it’s expected that range under the latest EPiC 2.0 energy batteries would rise to nearly 170 miles.

Nathan Millecam, CEO of Electric Power System, said, “EPiC 2.0’s leap in energy density and thermal performance has enabled a significant increase in range, a clear validation of our next-gen cell technology. We are impressed by what the Whisper team continues to achieve in advancing electric aviation.”

The press release concludes explaining that flight tests are expected to show that the Whisper Aero glider can be flown, “a few hundred feet away from neighborhoods without any disturbances, while carrying a 220 lbs. payload with full range,” which is all kind of ominous in today’s political climate, but still pretty neat from a purely tech perspective.

The TNGO grant follows a separate grant from NASA awarded last year, though that grant aims to develop the eQ250s – not as a propulsion system, but as a key component in future spacecraft ventilation systems.

Tennessee Tech announces TNGO grant

[embedded content]

With support from TNECD’s Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative, Tennessee Tech University and Whisper Aero are partnering to advance next-generation propulsion technology in the aerospace industry. This collaboration will enhance aerospace research and workforce development, ensuring Tennessee remains a leader in cutting-edge mobility solutions.

TNECD

SOURCE | IMAGES: TNECD; via eVTOL Insights, New Atlas.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Environment

Tesla Cybertruck owner gets stuck after beliving Elon Musk’s ‘river crossing’ claim

Published

39 mins ago

April 26, 2025

admin

Tesla Cybertruck owner gets stuck after beliving Elon Musk's 'river crossing' claim

A Tesla Cybertruck owner believed Elon Musk’s claims that the Cybertruck would be able to “act as a boat” and “cross rivers”, and he got his $100,000 stuck because of it.

Elon Musk has often made claims about how Tesla vehicles could float and briefly serve as a boat in the past.

We have never been taken too seriously because Tesla’s warranty states something different about taking the vehicle into water.

However, the CEO doubled down on the claim specifically for the Cybertruck.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Ahead of launching the production version of the Cybertruck, Musk claimed the vehicle would be “waterproof enough” to serve as a boat and cross rivers:

Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren’t too choppy.

The CEO added that the goal is for a Cybertruck to be able to cross the water between SpaceX’s Starbase and South Padre Island in Texas, which is about 360 meters (1,100 feet).

We have been taking the Cybertruck more seriously with water because we learned that Tesla built a ‘wade mode’ for the truck to be able to go into the water. Tesla says the mode increases the ride height to the max and temporarily “pressurizes the battery pack.”

The problem is that it is activated through the off-roading mode, which is not covered under Tesla’s warranty – so we are taking everything with a grain of salt.

Whenever Tesla’s warranty contradicts what Musk says, it is better to follow to the warranty.

A Tesla Cybertruck owner in Truckee, California, appears not to have received this sage advice since they activated the wade mode and attempted to get into the water.

The Cybertruck owner quickly got stuck. The local California Highway Patrol (CHP) shared some pictures of the aftermath (via Facebook):

CHP Truckee helped with the recovery and commented on the incident:

Cybertruck activated “Wade Mode”… and waded a bit too far… We’re all for testing boundaries… but maybe not the waterline. Remember folks, “Wade Mode” isn’t “Submarine Mode.” If your plans include exploring the great outdoors, make sure to know your limits and the terrain.

There’s no detail on the damage to the Cybertruck, if any.

As we recently reported, repair costs for the stainless steel electric pickup truck can increase rapidly.

This Cybertruck owner is also not the first one to get stuck in water. We previously reported on a Tesla Cybertruck sinking into the water when launching a jet ski.

Electrek’s Take

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is clearly more of a user error than a Cybertruck problem.

I think the verdict is clear: Cybertruck is far from the best electric pickup truck for off-roading.

However, in general, you shouldn’t expect a truck to get out of water on a muddy bank.

I think a lot of Cybertruck owners are new to trucking and off-roading, and they are making the truck look worse than it is at off-roading.

If you want to take your Cybertruck off-road, I recommend to first go with an off-roading guide that can help avoid some simple mistakes like this.

Also, in general, don’t take Elon Musk’s claims at face value when he says that Tesla vehicles can do something that sounds like an exaggeration. It probably is an exaggeration.

Getting solar at your home is one of the best financial moves you can make while helping the economy move away from fossil fuels. EnergySage enables you to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing It is a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar – whether you’re a homeowner or renter. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20 to 30% compared to going it alone. Some installers even offer Tesla products. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Environment

Bang for the buck: Omoda 9 arrives in Europe, nothing cheaper has more power

Published

2 hours ago

April 26, 2025

admin

Bang for the buck: Omoda 9 arrives in Europe, nothing cheaper has more power

The latest Chinese EREV to arrive in the west, the Omoda 9 SHS crossover hopes to shake things up in the hyper-competitive class with a top-shelf tech package, more horsepower than a Porsche 911 GT3, and a €39,900 price tag.

Established in 2022 as an upscale electric sub-brand by the Chinese car giant, Chery, Omoda has global ambitions – a fact that’s underscored by launch of the new Omoda 9 SHS (for “Super Hybrid System”) SUV shown here. And, with up to 535 hp in the top EU-market trim, Spanish auto enthusiast site Motorpasión reports that nothing cheaper is more powerful.

To put those 535 hp into context, Porsche’s motorsports-focused 911 GT3 supercar generates “just” 502 from its 4.0L flat-six engine. The Omoda’s 535, meanwhile, are generated by a single electric motor powering the SHS’ front wheels and a pair of electric motors at the rear – good enough to rocket the SUV from 0-62 mph (100 kmh) in just 4.9 seconds.

Under the hood

The SHS version of the Omoda packs a 34.46 kWh battery pack that lets Omoda 9 SHS go 145 km (a little over 90 miles) on pure electric power. Once the battery is depleted, the 1.5 liter turbocharged ICE unit (shown, above) kicks on, providing an additional 935 km of driving for a combined 1,100 km of “range” from a full tank and battery.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

That said, this is a PHEV/EREV with more than enough all-electric range to handle all but the most extreme of edge-case daily driving needs – and, as such, Omoda expects the 9 SHS it to be used more like an EV. To that end, it’s capable of DC fast charging at up to 65 kW, charging from 20% to 80% in under 30 minutes.

Omoda execs, for their part, seem pretty proud of themselves. “The OMODA 9 represents a significant advancement for our brand, embodying modern living with its beautiful design, intelligent engineering, and usable technology,” says Victor Zhang, UK Country Director for OMODA. “Our SHS technology demonstrates the progress in hybrid vehicles, offering performance, range, and seamless integration into daily life. We believe the OMODA 9 delivers the comfort, power, and quality that today’s drivers expect.”

To meet those expectations, the Omoda 9 SHS offers drivers a dual 12.3″ curved screen display, a 540° rear-view camera, and a Sony sound system with HD speakers integrated into the front seats’ Nappa leather headrests. Those leather seats also feature fully electric adjustment, as well as heat, fan, and massage functions.

The 9 SHS is one of several new models introduced at this week’s Shanghai Auto Show, and is available for order in the UK and EU for delivery later this year.

Electrek’s Take

We can talk about tariff this and trade war that all day long. The real message here, however, is that China is objectively, unequivocally, and obviously years ahead of the US when it comes to American EVs in terms of manufacturing efficiency, battery and charging technology, and value. And, as long as they have a system that takes the burden of pensions and healthcare and other basics of life off the manufacturer, they’ll probably keep pulling ahead.

Head on down to the comments and change my mind.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Omoda; via Motorpasión.

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.