Why some New Yorkers will soon feel the effect of ocean winds

Good morning. Today we look at what a wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island could soon mean for consumers who use electricity. We’ll also discover the origins of this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

In a few weeks, some New York consumers could use electricity produced by a wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island — the first such development in New York state.

They won’t notice any difference. Their televisions and toasters will run the same way they do now, on electricity produced in power stations that use natural gas.

But this first step toward harnessing ocean wind as a source of electrical energy – and reducing greenhouse gas emissions – comes as the wind energy industry faces a crisis. Obstacles to projects in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have slowed those states’ hopes for wind energy’s potential as a renewable resource.

For now, New York’s best bet for entering the age of offshore wind energy is stacked on a pier in Connecticut — the launch point, not for a spacecraft, but for that first wind farm. My colleague Patrick McGeehan said the pier had the surreal look of a science fiction movie, with some of the outsized parts lined up like rockets waiting for the countdown. I spoke with him about the challenges of moving these components to their destinations outside of Long Island, as well as the challenges states face in transitioning to wind energy.

The future for offshore wind farms suddenly seems less certain than it did a few months ago. Some wind projects in the New York area have recently been canceled. What was behind the decisions to cancel them?

Global inflation and supply disruptions have driven up the costs of building these massive projects. That has led the companies that build them to call for bigger subsidies and, in some cases, to withdraw altogether.

Last month, Orsted, a Danish company, canceled two major projects it was going to build off the coast of New Jersey.

That move came shortly after regulators in New York refused to review contracts with the developers of four wind farms off the coast of Long Island. Those companies wanted New York to pay significantly more than it agreed to – $12 billion more – for the electricity the wind farms would generate. The companies said they might not be able to build the wind farms without the increases. These projects were integral to New York’s goals to transition to renewable energy sources.

What happened to the contracts?

New York plans to turn them off again this week and submit new bids to supply that wind energy. Government officials hope to stay on track toward their goal of generating nine gigawatts of power from offshore wind by 2035. That would be enough electricity to power about 4.5 million homes.

But some industry analysts have expressed doubts that New York can achieve this ambitious goal.

So why is Orsted moving forward with this South Fork Wind project?

South Fork Wind is much closer to completion than the others. Construction is already underway and expected to be finished sometime early next year, but some power is expected to start flowing next month.

That could make South Fork Wind the first to convert ocean wind into electricity for thousands of homes across the country. It is a joint venture between Orsted and Eversource, a regional utility company.

What is involved in setting up the turbines?

Crews are planting twelve turbines at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, more than 35 miles east of Montauk Point on Long Island. Each turbine is as tall as the General Motors Building across from the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Each has three blades as long as a football field.

Once the turbines are in place, workers will connect them to a substation, which is connected to Long Island by a cable on the ocean floor. At the other end of that cable is the electrical grid that distributes electricity to homes and businesses.

The turbines will generate power for New York, so why? Are the parts shipped from Connecticut?

For this project, New London’s State Pier made sense for two reasons. It is closer to the site than any other port large enough to contain all the components. And there are no bridges between there and the ocean for the turbine towers to squeeze under.

New York has big plans to develop its own offshore wind industry. The state has pledged $300 million to factories in the Albany area that would make turbine parts so they wouldn’t have to be imported. It also plans to create an offshore wind energy hub at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

How realistic is the goal of getting electricity from the first South Fork turbines by the end of the year? How many turbines will be ready by then?

Orsted officials are still promising that power will flow from at least one of the turbines by 2023. They plan to connect them one by one and say they expect at least a few to be online by the end of December.

The most important factor is the weather on the water, especially when it comes to installing the blades, which resemble giant sails. What I’m saying is that on many days it can be too windy to build a wind farm.

Weather

It will be a mainly sunny day with highs around 40 degrees. The evening will be partly cloudy, with temperatures in the low 30s.

ALTERNATE PARKING

In effect until December 8 (Immaculate Conception).

In June, a man pulled into a driveway in Vestal, New York. The homeowner, Matt McGinley, thought the visitor was a real estate agent interested in the house.

The man in the driveway did not have his eye on the house, but on the more than 25 meter high fir tree in the garden. The man in the driveway was Erik Pauze, the head gardener at Rockefeller Center and the person who chooses perhaps America’s most famous Christmas tree every year.

Jackie McGinley said her husband scoffed when Pause explained who he was and why he was there. But she took Pauze’s business card inside and searched online for the name on the card. “A profile popped up and the photo of the person in the profile matched the man in my yard,” she said. She gave Pause her phone number.

Soon he was back – “watering the tree, feeding the tree, climbing the tree,” he said.

And then he decided that it was the tree. It was cut and taken to Rockefeller Center, where more than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights were strung from its branches. It was topped with a 10-foot Swarovski star.

Tonight the lights come on, “a few minutes before 10 p.m.,” according to the Rockefeller Center website. WNBC-TV will have a live broadcast at 7 p.mfollowed by a networking program starting at 8 p.m. (a pro-Palestinian community group, Within Our Lifetime, said it would hold a rally at Rockefeller Center from 6 p.m. ‘Flood the tree lighting for Gaza’, the group said on Instagram.)

So what about the McGinleys’ own holiday tree?

Jackie McGinley said the family usually went to a tree farm. “We are not as skilled at cutting down our tree as the people at Rockefeller Center,” she said. “It lasted about a minute. It will cost us about twenty.”

But this year they bought an artificial tree. “It breaks my heart,” she said, “but last year we discovered that I have some pretty serious allergies to pine trees.”

METROPOLITAN diary

Famous guest

Dear Diary:

I was working the box office at an Off Broadway show when my boss told me that a celebrity guest was expected that evening.

By the time the show was about to start, no celebrity had appeared yet. Then, with a minute to go, walking came across a man I recognized as the actor Paul Sorvino and an entourage of three.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Sorvino,” I said. ‘The show is about to start. I will lead you to your seat.”

The man seemed slightly nervous.

“My name is Aiello,” he said. “Danny Aiello, young man.”

I’m still smart.

– Scott Colder

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send your entries here And read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. – JB

PS Here is today’s Mini crossword And Game competition. You can find all our puzzles here.