Construction Begins On NY's 1st Wind Project Off Montauk Coast

EAST HAMPTON, NY — History was made in Wainscott Friday as construction officially began on New York's first offshore wind project, South Fork Wind.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and others traveled to Wainscott in East Hampton, along with United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and other elected officials, to celebrate the kick off to South Fork Wind, jointly developed by Ørsted and Eversource off the coast of Montauk.

Building on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's January issuance of the final sale notice for the New York Bight, the recent offshore wind contract for the project off New York and New Jersey, and the Hochul's state of the state's pledge of a $500 million investment in offshore wind, New York continues to advance the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035, Hochul said.

"The harsh impacts and costly realities of climate change are all too familiar on Long Island, but today as we break ground on New York's first offshore wind project we are delivering on the promise of a cleaner, greener path forward that will benefit generations to come," Hochul said. "This is a historic day for New York."

The project is slated to become operational in late 2023, one of the first commercial-scale offshore wind projects to commence operation in North America.

Selected under a 2015 Long Island Power Authority request for proposals to address growing power needs on the East End, the project will be located about 35 miles east of Montauk Point and its 12 Siemens-Gamesa 11 MW turbines will generate approximately 130 megawatts of power — enough to power more than 70,000 homes, Hochul said.

Its transmission system will deliver clean energy directly to the electric grid in East Hampton Town. Over a 25-year period, South Fork Wind is expected to eliminate up to six million tons of carbon emissions, or the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road annually, Hochul said.

Long Island Power Authority CEO Thomas Falcone said: "As the first offshore wind farm in New York, South Fork Wind is the beginning of a new industry for our region that will be vital to New York meeting its goal of a zero-carbon electric grid by 2040."

Friday's symbolic groundbreaking, with elected officials taking photos with shovels, follows the BOEM's approval last month of the project's construction and operations plan, which includes mitigation measures to protect marine habitats and species. BOEM's final approval of the COP follows the agency's November, 2021 issuance of the record of decision, which concluded the thorough BOEM-led environmental review of the project, Hochul said.

"I'm proud to say that Long Island is an emerging trailblazer in renewable energy and will soon lead the state and the nation in offshore wind energy production," said New York State Assemblyman Fred Thiele. "South Fork Wind Farm opens an exciting new chapter for us here on the East End, and I look forward to soon having a greener grid powered by this historic investment."

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone added: "Long Island has been a leader in all things clean energy, and as we begin construction on New York's first wind farm, we are changing how we power our homes and businesses here in Suffolk. This historic project, which puts Suffolk County at the heart of the offshore wind industry .. . is a major victory for our economy, for labor, and for our environment as we remain committed to addressing the impacts of climate change on our region."

East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc reminded that in 2014 East Hampton was the first municipality in New York to adopt a 100 percent renewable energy goal.

"Today, with the beginning of the construction of New York's first offshore wind farm we are very close to reaching that goal," he said.

Ørsted Offshore North America CEO David Hardy spoke. "With the start of construction on New York's first offshore wind farm, we continue to deliver on our vision of a new U.S. energy industry that will generate clean power, jobs, and economic opportunity," he said.

Saying it was an "emotional day," Hardy spoke of Ørsted's own journey; in the 2000s, the company was known as fossil fuel-intensive. "We faced a reckoning," he said. "Should we continue, or be a first mover — a tool for climate change?" Today, the company is a leader in wind energy. "Tesla is to elect vehicles, Ørsted is to offshore wind."

Eversource Energy President and CEO Joe Nolan added that all materials, including concrete and breakfast sandwiches, would be sourced locally. "As homegrown experts in regional energy transmission, we have led the way on countless infrastructure projects, but today, we commemorate something entirely new and different. For the very first time, we will be leveraging our expertise to harness the vast, untapped potential of offshore wind."

South Fork Wind will be built under labor agreements and specific partnerships with local union organizations, ensuring local union labor's participation in all phases of construction on the project, Hochul said. Onshore construction activities for the project's underground duct bank system and interconnection facility are the first to begin and will source construction labor from local union hiring halls, Hochul added.

Long Island-based contractor Haugland Energy Group LLC was selected to install the duct bank system for the project's underground onshore transmission line and lead the construction of the onshore interconnection facility located in East Hampton, creating more than 100 union jobs for Long Island skilled trades workers, including heavy equipment operators, electricians, lineworkers, and local delivery drivers who will support transportation of materials to the project site, Hochul said.

New York State has five offshore wind projects in active development, totaling more than 4,300 megawatts, with the capacity to power more than 2.4 million New York homes — a plan that is expected to bring a combined economic impact of $12.1 billion to the state and create more than 6,800 jobs.

Achieving the state's 9,000 megawatt by 2035 goal will generate enough offshore wind energy to power approximately 30 percent of New York State's electricity needs, equivalent to nearly 6 million New York State homes, and spur approximately 10,000 jobs, Hochul added.

"This is a great day," Hochul said. "I am so energized by what we are doing here to lean into clean energy."

Over the years, some concerns were raised by local fishermen had questions about the possible effects on their catch; the future of cod fishing — and also, if the project would be visible from the shore, which Hochul assured it would not be.