Orsted pushed expected completion of its Skipjack wind farm off Delaware back by a year citing later than expected federal permits, in another delay for the emerging US offshore sector.

The offshore wind group said the 120MW Skipjack is now set for completion by the end of 2023 rather than late 2022.

"As the federal permitting timeline evolves, Orsted is now receiving its federal Notice of Intent for the Skipjack Wind Farm later than originally anticipated,” the company said.

It said the new 2023 target “puts us in the strongest position possible to deliver a successful project”. Skipjack is in line to supply power to Maryland under the state’s Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Credits scheme.

Skipjack is due to use 12MW Haliade-X machines from GE Renewable Energy, becoming one of the first projects to line up the world’s biggest wind turbines when Orsted signed a preferred supplier deal last September.

Skipjack’s rescheduling is the latest delay to hit the US sector, which is set to become one of the world’s key offshore wind markets but to date still has only one project in the water – the 30MW Block Island.

The 800MW Vineyard Wind, co-developed by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, was due in service in 2022 but is now looking at 2023 after the federal government delayed issuing a key permit.

US Wind’s 248MW MarWin – which like Skipjack is also due to supply power to Maryland – is also set for a later than planned 2023 commercial operation date (COD).

The nascent US industry has previously said early delays can’t dent the massive potential of the US sector, which is being driven by massive renewable energy ambitions by states such as New York and New Jersey.

The American Wind Energy Association said in a report issued in March that the US offshore wind industry along the Atlantic coast will invest as much as $57bn to install up to 30GW by 2030, and could support as many as 83,000 jobs by then

Wind

New US offshore wind delay as Orsted awaits Trump government permit