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Empire Wind resumes

June 17, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In April, the Trump Administration issued a stop order for the Empire Wind offshore wind project in New York, pushing the $5 billion project to the brink of collapse. The project is being built by the giant Norwegian energy company Equinor. When completed, the wind farm is expected to deliver enough electricity to power 500,000 New York homes.

Equinor had obtained all the necessary permits for the project after a four-year federal environmental review and work had begun on laying foundations for the wind turbines on the ocean floor.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum claimed that the permits for the project been rushed and ordered the work stopped. The stoppage was costing Equinor $50 million a week as well as jeopardizing an additional 1,000 jobs.

Weeks of intensive interactions between New York Governor Kathy Hochul, Equinor officials, and the White House finally resulted in a decision by the administration to lift the stop work order and allow the project to move forward.

The collapse of the project would have created major problems for New York. The state’s grid operators have been counting on the construction of several new offshore wind farms to provide large additional amounts of electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions. New York has aggressive targets for using renewable energy.

Empire Wind is expected to have 816 megawatts of capacity. Another offshore project in New York, Sunrise Wind, which is under construction 30 miles east of Montauk Point on Long Island, would have 924 megawatts of capacity.

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In Reversal, Trump Officials Will Allow Huge Offshore N.Y. Wind Farm to Proceed

Photo, posted August 9, 2022, courtesy of the Scottish Government via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The dangers of deep sea mining

April 21, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The White House is considering an executive order that would fast-track permitting for deep-sea mining in international waters and allow mining companies to bypass a United Nations-backed review process.

Deep sea mining is the extraction of minerals from the seabed in the deep ocean. Most of the interest is in what are known as polymetallic nodules, which are potato-sized mineral deposits that have built up in layers over thousands of years. They are located several miles below the surface, primarily in what is called the Clarion-Clipperton zone, which is an environmental management area of the Pacific Ocean about halfway between Mexico and Hawaii.

A new multiyear study led by UK’s National Oceanography Center and published in the journal Nature found that the site of a deep-sea mining test in 1979 still showed lower levels of biodiversity than in neighboring undisturbed sites 44 years later.

Much is not known about the undersea nodules. We know that they produce oxygen. If the nodules are removed, will that reduce the amount of oxygen in the deep sea and affect the organisms that live there? If mining occurs, what effect will the metal-containing sediment plumes churned up by the mining process have?

The nodule fields sustain highly specialized animal and microbial communities. More than 20 billion tons of nodules are estimated to lie on the seabed of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. If large-scale mining takes place, and there is much interest in that happening, it is important to find out what the impact will be on the ocean and its ecosystems because it is likely to be largely irreversible.

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Deep sea mining for rare metals impacts marine life for decades, scientists say

Photo, posted September 4, 2014, courtesy of James St. John via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Empire Wind moves forward

February 13, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Empire Wind 1, the first offshore wind project that will connect to the New York City grid, has received the financing needed to move forward. Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company developing the project, closed on a more than $3 billion financing package.

The wind farm will span 80,000 acres in an area 15-30 miles southeast of Long Island. When completed, it will have a capacity of 810 megawatts. Equinor has executed a Purchase and Sale Agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to purchase power from Empire Wind 1 for 25 years at a strike price of $155/MWh. The operations and maintenance hub for Empire Wind 1 will be at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Commercial operation is expected by 2027.

The previously-planned Empire Wind 2 project was terminated a year ago because of inflation, interest rates, and supply chain disruptions. More broadly, the U.S. offshore wind industry has been struggling for the past year.

With the return of President Donald Trump to the White House, there is much greater uncertainty facing the industry. As a result of the election, Attentive Energy, a planned 3-gigawatt wind project off the coasts of New York and New Jersey has been put on pause. Trump’s public disdain for offshore wind energy is likely to create a major slowdown in the growth of the offshore wind pipeline. On the other hand, the new administration is less likely to have much influence on projects already in progress including 4 gigawatts under active construction and more than 50 gigawatts in other stages of development.

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Empire Wind 1 secures $3B+ financing package, enters ‘full execution mode’

Photo, posted May 2, 2022, courtesy of California Energy Commission via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Efficiency Of Offshore Wind | Earth Wise

December 10, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

After many years of debates, delays, and controversies, offshore wind is about to expand in a big way in the United States. The White House has announced the goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind – enough to power 90 million homes – along the East Coast seaboard by 2030.

In New York State, there are now five offshore wind projects in active development. The state goal is to have nearly a gigawatt of offshore wind by 2035, enough to power over 4 million homes.

These projects involve the use of thousands of physically large, high-capacity wind turbines deployed over large areas at an unprecedented scale. Such mammoth installations bring with them unique problems.

Low-turbulence conditions over water lead to the fact that individual wind farms will experience each other’s wake (the disturbance of their airflow) even when turbine arrays are 15 to 50 miles apart. As a result, turbines may fatigue earlier, and groups of turbines may experience up to 30% lower power production due to wake effects.

Industry trends are causing an increased probability of large wake-induced energy losses within individual wind farms and an increasing probability of wake interactions.

These issues have been studied in new research published by researchers at Cornell University. The research presents simulations that may be helpful to optimize turbine spacing in the ongoing deployments and assist plans for future ones. Improved understanding of wind turbine and wind-farm wake is essential in ensuring that the financial investments in offshore wind result in electricity-generation goals met at the lowest possible cost.

According to Department of Energy studies, offshore wind resources around the United States could potentially generate more electricity than the entire country currently uses.

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Scientists bring efficiency to expanding offshore wind energy

Photo, posted August 9, 2016, courtesy of Lars Plougmann via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change Threatens the U.S. Military

February 20, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new study from the Pentagon, nearly half of United States military sites are threatened by wild weather linked to climate change. The U.S. Department of Defense states that drought, wind, and flooding that occur due to reasons other than storms topped the list of natural disasters that endanger 1,700 military sites around the world – everything from outposts to large bases.