Four more state-contracted wind farms proposed for Long Island

With Long Island’s first offshore wind farm already producing energy for the East End and a second under construction in Brookhaven, power producers last month proposed another round of reworked projects that could see hundreds of turbines spinning off Long Island over the next decade.

Most of the newly bid projects will be located in wind-lease areas between Long Island and New Jersey called the New York Bight. Most were rebid last month after the state canceled a previous award following a turbine manufacturer’s decision to abandon plans for the industry’s biggest turbines, which most of the projects had planned to use.

The newly rebid projects include one totaling around 24 miles from Fire Island that proposes to make landfall at Jones Beach State Park; another that will be located off the New England coast and transmit energy via a new cable from over 100 miles away; a third that proposes a cable that will make its way around Manhattan to a landing point in Queens; and a fourth that didn’t list its landing point. All told, the projects would produce upward of 7,000 megawatts of power, enough for millions of New York homes and businesses if they're approved and completed sometime after the end of the decade. 

Most of the documents filed with the state are heavily redacted, and spokespersons for each of the companies declined to discuss projects beyond summaries offered in the bidding process. Cost information, including bill impacts and final construction costs, also haven't been released, with proposed financial information due to the state by Oct. 18.

One project that proposes injecting its energy into the LIPA grid at Uniondale is the rebid Excelsior Wind farm by Vineyard Offshore. The project is now 1,350 megawatts compared to the previous 1,314 megawatts. The reconfiguration suggests that Excelsior will use even more turbines than the 73 proposed in the project's first iteration, though the company declined to disclose the number for publication. Previously, Vineyard and other wind-energy companies built their plans around planned 18-megawatt turbines from GE Vernova, but that turbine is no longer being built.

At 24 miles from Fire Island at its eastern tip, the Excelsior turbine field will be visible from land, though not as visible as Empire Wind, a project for New York City that will be around 14 miles from Long Beach. Some citizen groups have opposed the South Shore turbine fields, in part because of the impact on views. Excelsior will address concerns about cables being run through populated areas by proposing its landing site at Jones Beach. Environmental groups and the state say the projects are needed to replace a generation of aging fossil-fuel powered plants that are one cause of worsening climate change.

Costs and rate impacts for the projects, with estimated price tags into the multiple billion dollars each, haven't fully been determined as yet, and developers and the state in the past have released selective pricing details. 

The “multibillion dollar” Excelsior project, according to Vineyard, will be 31 miles from Jones Beach, where its 36-mile undersea cable will land at Field 1 of Jones Beach State Park, according to its filing. From there, the planned cable will travel around 14 miles to a LIPA substation in Uniondale, according to map estimates. Vineyard claims the array will produce enough energy to supply power for around 700,000 homes, and could be completed by 2031.

Vineyard’s proposal could face deeper scrutiny after its sister project, Vineyard Wind, located 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard, experienced a blade break while still under construction in July. The mishap sent shards of fiberglass and other material from the approximately 100-yard-long blade into the waterways and onto Nantucket beaches. Construction of the 62-turbine project has since resumed, but electricity production remains suspended.

Christina Kramer, president of Protect Our Coast Long Island, an opposition group based in Long Beach, said the Jones Beach landing site and 24-mile distance doesn't appease the group.

"It could be 1,000 miles out" and the group would still oppose it, she said. "None of it is going to be acceptable," given higher power costs, intermittent energy and the prospect of broken equipment polluting Long Island waterways and beaches. She criticized the heavy redactions in the filings with the state, saying it limits transparency over the projects.

Another project — Long Island Wind — is being offered to the state by Orsted, the Danish wind-energy giant that already has completed a project for LIPA known as South Fork Wind and is currently building Sunrise Wind, which will make land at Smith Point by 2026. The 1,485 megawatt Long Island Wind promises to deliver enough energy for 1 million homes.

In a heavily redacted filing, Orsted said Long Island Wind will be built 48 miles from Montauk, or 28 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, though its landing site, number of turbines and costs aren't disclosed. It’s expected to be in operation by 2032. Orsted, which has taken more than $4 billion in impairment charges tied to its U.S. offshore wind projects, including for canceling two projects it had planned to build in New Jersey, this week announced that European energy giant Equinor, of Norway, bought around 10% of Orsted shares for $2.5 billion.

Orsted on Wednesday led a visit to the South Fork Wind farm that displayed the completed project alongside new construction work for its Revolution Wind project with energy destined for Connecticut and Rhode Island. Long Island Wind would be located adjacent to the Sunrise Wind project, for which offshore construction is expected to start next year. 

A third project, Community Offshore Wind, is a joint venture of National Grid Ventures and RWE. It proposes an unspecified number of turbines to be built in the company’s 197-square-mile lease area, located about 64 miles south of Long Island. A spokeswoman declined to say how many turbines would be in the project, or disclose the projected cost to build it. Nor would she say where the proposed cable will land. Documents filed with the state say Community Offshore would produce some 3,000 megawatts of power. 

The fourth project, known as Attentive Energy, would have capacity for 1,275 megawatts, with a plan to bring its energy into the Ravenswood energy complex in Queens. The project, to be located 54 miles from Long Island, proposes a cable from the turbine field south of Long Island through waterways around New York City to the Ravenswood site in Queens. If approved, it would be in service by the end of 2032.

New York State, which already had selected three of the projects as part of an earlier solicitation that was canceled because GE Vernova, decided against making the 18-megawatt turbines and could chose any number of the projects, or none at all. Financial bidding information is expected to be provided to the state by the end of next week.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.