As the future of the offshore wind industry is very much in flux under a new administration that has put a halt on new federal leases to wind farms, Long Island is situated to be one of the few areas in the country where offshore wind projects already completed or under construction may power our communities in the years ahead.
Pictured Above: Turbine blades being installed at the South Fork Wind Farm in December of 2023. That wind farm is now fully operational, and Ørsted is now working on an adjacent wind farm, Sunrise Wind. |. Beacon File Photo
New York State has bet heavily on wind over the past several years, encouraged by the Biden administration’s commitment to the technology’s use to decarbonize our energy grid.
But on his first day in office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for a “temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer continental shelf (OCS) from offshore wind leasing” and a review of the federal government’s leasing and permitting practices for wind projects.
The withdrawal “temporarily prevents consideration of any area in the OCS for any new or renewed wind energy leasing,” but “nothing in this withdrawal affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas,” according to the text of the executive order.
On Eastern Long Island, the biggest player in this space is the Danish energy firm Ørsted, which has signed several dacades-long leases with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in recent years.
Ørsted recently cut and run from its Ocean Wind 1 & 2 projects in New Jersey, but remains committed to projects on Long Island, according to the company’s Feb. 6 earnings call with new CEO Rasmus Errboe.
“In the U.S., we are closely following the recent political and policy developments,” he said. “We are currently reviewing the executive order on wind energy. The appointees are being confirmed as we speak, and these officials will implement this policies.”
That said, Mr. Errboe said the company has “a good feeling” about two projects — Sunrise Wind — where work is underway to tie an undersea transmission cable, coming ashore at Smith Point Park, with a transmission line currently being installed up William Floyd Parkway to a substation in Holbrook — and Revolution Wind, a project off the coast of Rhode Island.
Mr. Errboe did say “the recent and highly disappointing challenges related to our U.S Offshore wind projects under construction and adverse impact on capital structure” will lead the company to an “increasingly sharp focus delivering projects according to their updated schedules and budgets, with more granular communication about the progress and risks in construction.”
The Sunrise Wind Farm, has seen “adverse developments, with higher costs and schedule delays,” said Mr. Errboe. “That has been factored into our business case, and we’ve seen good progress in terms of onshore construction work.”
The company reported $1.7 billion in impairments due to higher costs, including financing costs, at Sunrise Wind in the fourth quarter of 2024, as work was underway on the onshore underground transmission line trenching.
As of the week of Feb. 24, 2025, onshore work was continuing on the transmission route and on the expansion of the Holbrook substation, while at Smith Point County Park, the company was mobilizing its equipment and continuing horizontal directional drilling. The jack up vessel Aries Ram XV is now positioned about 1,320 feet offshore at Smith Point to assist with the project, attended by the support vessel Samantha Miller.
When completed, Sunrise Wind is expected to include 84 turbines, with a capacity of 924 megawatts, on a site about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. The site is adjacent to the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm, Ørsted’s 12-turbine wind farm that began operation in early 2024, providing power to the East End via a substation in East Hampton.
Sunrise Wind was initially slated to begin providing power to Long Island this year, but Ørsted announced in January that it is now on target to begin providing power in the second half of 2027.
Mr. Errboe said Feb. 6 that, at the Revolution Wind site, Ørsted has installed 52 monopole turbine bases along with the base for an offshore substation, 18 turbines and “the vast majority of cable installation,” in anticipation of being operational in 2026.
Ørsted also announced in the fall of 2024 that it has submitted a bid to the New York State Energy Research Development Agency (NYSERDA) for another wind farm on a lease site adjacent to Sunrise and South Fork Wind. Called “Long Island Wind,” it would have a capacity of 1,485 megawatts.
“The planned investments are contingent on Long Island Wind’s selection by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the successful execution of an Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate agreement with NYSERDA, and a final investment decision by Ørsted,” according to the company’s fall 2024 announcement that it had submitted the bid.
Further up the island, Equinor’s 816 megawatt Empire Wind, off the coast of Long Beach, is slated to connect to the grid in Brooklyn. Equinor received a 30-year lease from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for its site in 2017, and entered a 25-year power purchase agreement with NYSERDA, at $155 per megawatt/hour, in 2024. It secured $3 billion in financing one month ago, and received final approval for its transmission line from the New York Public Service Commission in mid-February, and expects to be operational by the end of 2027.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul pledged the state’s continued commitment to offshore wind in her State of the State Address in January, although she didn’t offer as many details as she has in recent years.
“We’ve recommitted to reducing carbon emissions with offshore wind off the coast of Long Island and hydroelectric power coming in from Quebec to power New York City,” she said in her address. “And this year I’m calling for an historic $1 billion investment to further the transition to a zero emission economy.”
NYSERDA highlighted home retrofits with heat pumps, “ensuring our public infrastructure can serve as hubs of sustainability” and expanding green transportation options as examples of how that investment will be made, along with issuing contracts that “will result in at least 500 megawatts of renewable energy.”
The proposal also calls for the state to create a Master Plan for Responsible Advanced Nuclear Development, to co-lead “a multi-state initiative… on advanced nuclear energy,” and to pursue federal grant funding for “exploration of the addition of one or more new advanced nuclear reactors at its Nine Mile Point site in Oswego County.” —BHY
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