May 19, 2024 — Norwegian energy company Equinor has received approval from the New York State Public Service Commission to start building its Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm, Governor Kathy Hochul said on Thursday.
Electricity generated from offshore wind farms is important to U.S. and state goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
July 19, 2021 — If Long Beach residents are concerned about a private company’s $3 billion proposal to build a 174-turbine wind farm 15 miles off the South Shore, few of them voiced it at a virtual hearing on the matter on July 8.
Only a handful of people commented at the second hearing held by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on a proposal by the Norway-based Equinor to build the Empire Wind project.
Equinor has been awarded contracts by New York state, the first of which was granted in 2019 to supply 816 megawatts of power to the state grid, connecting in Brooklyn. A second contract, for 1,260 megawatts, was awarded in January for Long Island’s South Shore.
What is key for Long Beach is a part of the project that calls for two offshore substations to collect the power, which would be routed by cables to one or more of several potential sites in Brooklyn. A Long Beach cable would also be connected to an Equinor substation, and to the Long Island Power Authority grid by way of a substation in Island Park. That cable could run under the barrier island.
Long Beach would not be involved in the overall approval process, but would have a say in the underground cable’s location.
July 13, 2021 — Electricity from the Equinor and BP Empire Wind project should start coming into New York’s power grid in 2025, according to updated plans the joint venture has filed with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The first offshore wind energy project laid out for the New York Bight is a 79,350-acre tract, shaped like a slice of pizza wedged between two of the ship traffic separation lanes in the New York Harbor approaches.
With the enormous volume of vessel traffic in the region – container vessels at the port of New York and New Jersey, coastwise tug and barge tows, plus commercial and recreational fishing fleets – navigation has been the foremost issue since New York state energy planners first began looking to ocean wind as a power source.
“There is certainly a concern about setback” from the shipping traffic lanes, said Lucas Feinberg, a project manager with BOEM, during a July 8 online virtual public scoping session hosted by the agency.
Early on, planners agreed to a 1-nautical mile setback along the Empire Wind frontage along the shipping lanes. Formally known on charts as traffic separation schemes, the lanes fan out from the New York Harbor entrance at Ambrose Light.
June 25, 2021 — A $3 billion proposal to build what would be New York state’s largest offshore wind farm is taking shape, with plans to run an underground cable through Long Beach to a substation near the E.F. Barrett Power Station in Island Park. A precise location for the cable has not yet been determined.
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will soon begin an environmental review of the construction and operation of what would be called Empire Wind, off Long Island’s South Shore. The review is expected to take two years, and the project would need state approval as well. Work on Empire Wind would begin no sooner than 2023. Long Beach would not be involved in the approval process, but would help determine the location of the underground cable.
The wind turbines would be about 15 miles offshore.
The Long Island Commercial Fishing Association is strongly opposed to the project, claiming that fish, and fishermen, will be adversely affected.
Equinor, a company based in Norway, has been awarded contracts by New York state, the first in 2019, to supply 816 megawatts of power to the state grid, connecting in Brooklyn. A second contract, for 1,260 megawatts, was awarded in January, for Long Island’s South Shore.
June 23, 2021 — Offshore wind power is coming to New York for the first time, and it would be the largest wind farm in the nation to date.
As CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reports, a video simulation of what’s called the Empire Wind Project, off Long Island and New Jersey, shows what it will look like from shore.
Winds of change off Long Island, where offshore wind turbines will one day bring clean energy. To visualize the nation’s first large scale offshore wind farm, with its 174 turbines, the developer created a simulation from Jones Beach, which has some relieved they’re further offshore than first proposed.
The scallop industry objects to its placement.
“Fishermen can’t fish in a wind farm, and so building a wind farm on fishing grounds takes those fishing grounds out of play for the fishermen,” said David Frulla, an attorney for the scallop industry. “You are looking at people losing their livelihoods.”
“Frankly, the biggest threat to our fishing industry is climate change,” Esposito said.
The Bureau of Energy Management invites comment before impact studies are launched.
The Empire Wind Farm would be some 19 miles off Long Branch, New Jersey.
July 14, 2020 — Offshore wind is considered one of the most promising forms of renewable energy to expand this decade. According to the nonprofit World Forum Offshore Wind, technological advancements, global government support, and cost reductions have allowed the industry to play a greater role in electricity generation. Offshore wind is currently most prevalent in Western Europe, but this source of energy production is rapidly growing in countries such as China and the United States.
In New York State, Governor Cuomo’s 2018 Offshore Wind Master Plan outlines steps for offshore wind development until 2030. A first-of-its-kind document in the United States, the plan delineated a study area known as the New York Bight Call Area for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the agency responsible for energy projects in federal water, to consider for future projects. BOEM has recommended several areas of interest (see map below), and the oil and gas company Equinor secured an approximately $3 billion lease next to the area for its Empire Wind project.
While the Offshore Wind Master Plan can help New York secure 2.4 gigawatts of carbon-free electricity by 2020 (enough to power 1.2 million homes), the projects could also potentially compete with other activities, such as fishing, vessel traffic, conservation, and ocean science research. In the NY-NJ Bight, scallopers are concerned about offshore wind projects negatively impacting fisheries. Examining the spatial proximity between the region’s scallop fishery and offshore wind industry highlights the need for wind development companies to take fishermen’s concerns more seriously, so that both parties can coexist successfully.
July 22, 2019 — New York state officials struck deals with two offshore wind energy developers to build 1,700 megawatts of capacity off Long Island, aiming to have turbines in operation by 2024 that could potentially power more than 1 million homes.
The projects would also bring 1,600 jobs and $3.2 billion in economic activity, according to state energy planners. Ørsted,one of the winners in the New York power agreement bidding, says its investments in the state will include training programs for new workers – seen as a critical need for the budding U.S. wind industry.
Ørsted also plans a new operations and maintenance center near Port Jefferson, N.Y., to include dockage for a 250’ service operation vessel.
Building a Jones Act-compliant vessel of that size for the U.S. market would be a jump up from a first generation of U.S.-built crew transfer vessels now under construction for Ørsted, and could be a signal for other offshore operators to take on the risk of investing in a first U.S.-flag wind turbine installation vessel (WTIV) ahead of an anticipated tight global market for those specialized assets.
“Sunrise Wind will bring renewable energy and new economic development to New York,” said Lee Olivier, executive vice president of enterprise energy strategy at Eversource, Ørsted’s partner in that 880 MW project on a federal lease 30 miles east of Long Island. “We look forward to partnering with New York State as a clean energy leader in the Northeast as well as with the local communities and businesses on Long Island and throughout the state.”
The other contract winner is Equinor, one of the early arrivals in the New York Bight when it acquired a 79,350-acre federal lease, tucked between two traffic separation lanes in and out of New York Harbor. Dubbed Empire Wind, that 816 MW project together with Sunrise Wind will total almost 1,700 MW capacity, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency that manages the state’s renewable energy planning.