• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Earth Wise

A look at our changing environment.

  • Home
  • About Earth Wise
  • Where to Listen
  • All Articles
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Episode / Offshore Wind For New York | Earth Wise

Offshore Wind For New York | Earth Wise

February 10, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Offshore wind power expanding in New York State

In mid-January, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority announced that it had finalized contracts with BP and Equinor for the Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind offshore wind farms.

The agreements brought to fruition contracts that were awarded in January of 2021 and represent one of the largest clean energy procurements ever in the United States.

Under the finalized contracts, Equinor and BP will provide 1,260 megawatts of offshore wind power from Empire Wind 2 and another 1,230 megawatts from Beacon Wind 1.  Once completed, Empire Wind 1, Empire Wind 2, and Beacon Wind 1 will produce enough electricity to power about 2 million New York homes.

As part of the project, there will be substantial investments in New York infrastructure.  The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will be transformed into a major staging and assembly facility for the offshore wind industry and will be an operations and maintenance base for the project.   (The project will also invest in the Port of Albany, making it America’s first offshore wind tower and transition piece manufacturing facility).

Empire Wind is located 15-30 miles southeast of Long Island and spans an area of 80,000 acres.  Its two phases will eventually have an installed capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts.

Beacon Wind is located more than 60 miles east of Montauk Point and 20 miles south of Nantucket.  It covers an area of 128,000 acres.  Its two phases will ultimately also have a total capacity of more than 2,000 megawatts.

The wind farms will help generate more than a billion dollars in economic output to New York State.  Empire Wind 1 is expected to begin commercial operation in 2026 and the other wind farms over the following couple of years.

**********

Web Links

New York State just sealed a deal for 2.5 GW of offshore wind

Photo, posted March 24, 2016, courtesy of Andy Dingley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Tagged With: beacon wind 1, beacon wind 2, bp, clean energy, Climate Change, commercial, contracts, electricity, empire wind 1, empire wind 2, environment, equinor, government, homes, infrastructure, long island, new york homes, ocean, offshore, power, sea, United States, wind, wind energy, wind farms, wind power, wind turbines

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Episodes

  • A Groundwater Crisis | Earth Wise
  • Too Many Bison | Earth Wise
  • Deadly Heatwaves On The Rise | Earth Wise
  • Grid-Scale Gravity Energy Storage | Earth Wise
  • Trouble For Emperor Penguins | Earth Wise

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)

Copyright © 2023 ·