Orsted and New England utility partner Eversource, the developers behind New York’s 924MW Sunrise Wind offshore array, have committed to Long Island-based Haugland Group for the $200m construction contract for its onshore transmission system.
The project's construction and operations plan (COP) calls for building an 18-mile (29km) underground passageway and installing two 320kV transmission cables.
The cables will carry the array’s power from its Fire Island landfall to an existing substation in Holbrook, Long Island. The route was approved unopposed by the New York Public Service Commission and follows publicly owned roads and rights-of-way.
Construction will begin later this year and create 400 union jobs. Sunrise is forecasted to generate $700m in investment for Long Island while creating 800 direct and thousands of indirect jobs.
“Our offshore wind projects are putting New Yorkers to work, developing a statewide supply chain, and bringing clean American energy to the state,” said David Hardy, Group EVP and CEO Americas at Orsted.
Sunrise Wind, located some 30 miles (48km) east of Montauk, Long Island, New York, in the Massachusetts wind energy area, was awarded in New York's first round tender in 2019.
The project’s
COP is currently undergoing its environmental review by federal regulators, with a record of decision expected by the end of this year. The project is slated for commercial operation in 2025.
This is the second contract award by the developers to Haugland, which also constructed the onshore route for the JV’s 132MW
South Fork project.
South Fork is the US’ second fully approved project and is
already laying its export cable in anticipation of the installation of 12 Siemens Gamesa 11MW turbines this summer. The development will be the nation’s first fully completed commercial-scale offshore wind farm but faces multiple lawsuits over its approval process.
Joe Nolan, CEO of Eversource, called the award “One of the largest offshore wind supply chain investments ever made in the US.”
New York is a leader in US offshore wind, with 4.3GW of capacity already committed on a 9GW by 2035 mandate and massive supply chain investments proposed and underway, including
$500m towards fostering port and supply chain development.The developers of the 2.1GW Empire Wind 1 & 2, Norwegian state energy firm Equinor and oil supermajor BP, are driving a
$250m upgrade to the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal for staging and assembly.
A partnership of Canadian tower maker Marmen and Dutch steel fabricator Welcon is building
a tower manufacturing facility in upstate New York, also in support of Empire.
The state’s round 3 tender for up to 4.7GW of offshore wind capacity included calls for investment plans into local manufacturing.
Orsted-Eversource have submitted proposals into the round under the ‘Sunrise Wind 2’ monicker.
All three major turbine OEMs –
GE, Siemens Gamesa, and
Vestas – have proposed building New York manufacturing capacity contingent on sufficient long-term orders.
The Orsted-Eversource JV is also developing the
704MW Revolution Wind project split between Rhode Island and Connecticut. All three projects will be marshalled out of State Pier in New London, Connecticut.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Nyserda), the agency charged with overseeing offshore wind development, sees the industry generating over 10,000 jobs and billions in investment for the state.
New York is targeting 70% clean power supply by 2030 and 100% by 2040, and Nyserda representatives confirmed to
Recharge that the state will likely require
16GW of capacity to reach its emissions and clean energy goals.
