New York State is getting a big offshore wind factory

Wind turbine giant Siemens Gamesa announced today that it’s going to build a large offshore wind nacelle factory in New York State – giving the fledgling yet mushrooming US offshore wind industry yet another boost.

A nacelle is the housing on top of a wind turbine’s tower that contains the rotor and generator. It contains all the major components, including the gearbox, control electronics, and braking system.

Ørsted and Eversource are going to use Siemens Gamesa wind turbines when they build the 130 megawatt (MW) South Fork, New York’s first offshore wind farm, and also the 924 MW Sunrise Wind, which is also in New York.

The factory will be sited at the Port of Coeymans, a fairly new marine terminal on the Hudson River, about 10 miles south of Albany. It will result in a $500 million investment in the region and will create around 420 direct jobs and a large number of indirect jobs.

The factory is subject to the company’s wind turbines being selected in New York State’s third offshore wind auction. (The 3D visualization of the facility is pictured above.) It would supply components for all Siemens Gamesa offshore wind power projects along the US East Coast.

Siemens Gamesa, a Spanish-German company, is also going to localize several new component supplier facilities, including steel component fabrication, bearings, and composite components, and that’s going to help develop a local supply chain.

This is the company’s second announced US factory – the first is an offshore wind turbine blade finishing facility in Portsmouth, Virginia.

As of 2021, GE Wind was the largest wind turbine manufacturer overall in the US in terms of installation capacity, with Vestas coming in second. But the US offshore wind industry is still in its early stages of development.

New York State expects to procure at least 2 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy and up to 4.7 GW in this third round of procurement to achieve a total of 9 GW of offshore wind. That’s a sizable chunk of the US’s target of achieving 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030.

Read more: Siemens Gamesa claims world’s first recyclable offshore wind turbine blade

Photo: Siemens Gamesa

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