BLIX reveals New York offshore wind role

The second phase of offshore soil investigations at the Hudson North and Hudson South wind zones off new York has started, the Netherlands-based consultancy, BLIX, said.

The second stage of the investigation started in February, the consultancy said.

BLIX defined a program for the offshore soil investigations commissioned by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

In addition to providing strategic advice, drawing up the tender documents and preparing the technical and commercial specifications, procurement support was offered to select contractors to perform geophysical and geotechnical investigations, the consultancy said, as well as the support in selecting of an owners engineer.

BLIX is currently assisting with contracting the suppliers to perform the investigations in the second phase. Contracting the owner’s engineer for the client, who will be responsible for coordinating the campaigns, is part of this phase.

Ben de Sonneville, a senior consultant at BLIX, said: “We are glad we got the opportunity to implement the lessons learned with soil investigations in Europe and thereby contribute to a lower LCoE of the offshore wind farm developments of New York.”

Hudson North and Hudson South were among the four potential wind farm ”call areas” that the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) had identified in the New York Bight, an area of shallow waters between Long Island to the north and east and the New Jersey coast to the south and west.

The consideration of the other two areas, Fairways North and South, was subsequently deferred.

New York has set a goal of achieving 9GW of offshore wind capacity by 2035, which is so far the most ambitious target set by a US state.