New York gets its first electricity from the wind above the Atlantic Ocean
The news
New York State has entered the era of offshore wind energy, with electricity generated across the Atlantic Ocean now flowing to homes on Long Island.
Power comes from the first completed turbine of 12 that will make up for it South fork wind, the first large-scale offshore wind farm to come online in the United States. It will be sent via an undersea cable to a substation in East Hampton starting last week and then distributed to Long Island Power Authority customers, officials announced Wednesday.
The wind farm, about 35 miles east of Montauk Point, is still under construction. When completed, it will be able to produce 132 megawatts of electricity – enough to power about 70,000 homes.
Most, if not all, of that power will be consumed by utilities in East Hampton and surrounding communities. But the higher costs of producing the additional electricity offshore will be shared by all Long Island Power Authority customers.
“The electricity flows to where it is needed,” says Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, a non-profit interest group. “If it’s needed in East Hampton, it will flow to those users. If it is not all needed there, it can end up somewhere else on the island.”
Why it matters: Offshore wind energy should power the future.
The transmission is a major step forward in what officials in New York and several other Democratic-led states have promised will be a sweeping transition away from the energy generated by fossil fuels. Those states, especially in the Northeast, have pinned their hopes for a greener future on the development of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.
New York has drawn up plans to build several more wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean that could provide nine gigawatts of electricity – enough to power about 450,000 homes. These projects are critical to President Biden’s goal of generating 30 gigawatts of power from offshore wind by 2030.
However, these ambitious plans are starting to fall apart as inflation and rising interest rates have driven up the cost of putting giant turbines in the ocean. Some wind farm developers have attempted to renegotiate the terms of contracts with government agencies and some have withdrawn from projects altogether.
A few weeks ago, Orsted, a Danish company building South Fork Wind, canceled plans to build two large wind farms off the coast of New Jersey. The company said rising costs and disruptions to the turbine parts supply chain had made these projects unfeasible.
What’s Next: Big decisions about larger wind farms.
South Fork Wind will be the only source of offshore wind energy to New York for a while, if not forever.
The state has contracts with developers for four additional wind farms off the coast of Long Island, all significantly larger than South Fork Wind. But their builders, pinched by inflation and supply chain problems, asked the state this summer for big increases in the amount utilities would pay for their power.
When state officials declined to provide the much larger grants, developers said they were unsure whether they would continue with the projects. Hoping to stay on track to meet clean energy goals, the state responded last week with to ask new bids for the contracts.
These bids are expected in January.