New York’s largest offshore wind project, Sunrise Wind, a 924-MW project developed by Ørsted, started construction today. Once completed, the project will provide enough clean energy to power approximately 600,000 New York homes. Gov. Kathy Hochul also announced the issuance of New York’s fifth offshore wind solicitation to advance the next wave of clean energy development projects off the state’s coast, with final proposals due Sept. 9.

“We’re growing New York’s green economy, building clean energy, and expanding economic opportunities for all New Yorkers,” Hochul said. “By breaking ground on Sunrise Wind and advancing the next wave of offshore wind projects, New York is passing a tremendous milestone to combat climate change. These projects will create good-paying union jobs and demonstrate that New York is leading the nation to build the offshore wind industry.”

Today’s groundbreaking at the Boys and Girls Club of Bellport on Long Island officially kicked off the start of the Sunrise Wind project which will support more than 800 direct jobs during the construction phase of the project and will spur economic benefits from the Capital Region to Long Island – including a $700 million investment in Suffolk County alone. It will be built under project labor agreements ensuring local union labor’s participation in all phases of construction. The project will be located approximately 30 miles east of Montauk with an approved transmission route connecting to the state’s electricity grid at the Holbrook Substation in Brookhaven in Suffolk County.

Sunrise Wind has completed all major federal and state permitting milestones and received approval for its Construction and Operations Plan (COP) from the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on June 21.

This milestone builds on a series of significant offshore wind developments for the State in 2024, including the completion of the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. Ørsted’s South Fork Wind, finalization of contracts from New York’s fourth offshore wind solicitation and a historic groundbreaking at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which will support staging and assembly of offshore wind components and serve as an operations and maintenance hub for the Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project.

News item from NYSERDA

Filed Under: News, Offshore wind, Projects