Sunrise Wind nears completion of 17.5-mile cable from Holbrook to Smith Point

Amid ongoing federal scrutiny of wind power, the Sunrise Wind project is moving closer to completion of its 17.5-mile onshore cable in Brookhaven, while a ship is due off the coast of Smith Point this weekend to begin  work on the undersea cable. 

A recent map and progress report indicates that contractor Haugland Group is well along toward finishing the work of getting encasing cable for the 924-megawatt wind-farm project from a new receiver station in Holbrook along the Long Island Expressway to Horse Block Road and down William Floyd Parkway to Smith Point.

Temporary pier facilities are built on either side of Narrow Bay between Smith Point County Park Marina and the ocean beach, for use by five transport barges to ferry heavy equipment between the sites. Also this week, a jack-up vessel and a support ship are due in the waters offshore of Smith Point as crews begin horizontal drilling under the beach. The ships will remain in place through mid-March, developer Orsted said.

Offshore crews also will begin undersea "relocation" of 36 boulders in the seabed along the cable route, which ends in the planned array off the coast of Rhode Island/Massachusetts.

A briefing presentation by Haugland indicates that more than 500 people have been put to work building the onshore infrastructure for the cable, using more than 700 New York subcontractors and vendors. Haugland estimates more than $165,000 was spent fueling 200 vehicles   at local gas stations for the green-energy project, and that 47 food companies served $18,000 worth of meals during the work, which started last year. About 60 students received training at the site.

In Denmark last week, Orsted held a conference call on which its newly named chief executive, Rasmus Errboe, pronounced 2024 a "challenging year" for the company and the nascent U.S. industry. He announced a "reduced investment program" for offshore wind by the company through the end of the decade.

The company also announced it had taken $1.9 billion in impairment charges during the year tied to its U.S. offshore business, including for expenses of Sunrise and another U.S. project, Revolution Wind.

Errboe told financial analysts on a conference call that the company is "very closely following all relevant policy developments in the U.S.," tied to President Donald Trump’s executive order last month halting new wind-farm leases and reviewing permitting and other federal processes. 

Sunrise and Revolution wind are "active in construction and we are fully committed to moving them forward and delivering on our commitments," Errboe told analysts. "We do not expect that the executive order will have any implications on assets under construction, but as for assets under development it’s a different situation."

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which administers the nation's offshore wind initiatives, last week canceled planned public hearings for another federally permitted project, Vineyard Mid-Atlantic, citing Trump's executive order. 

BOEM said it was "implementing President Trump’s memorandum temporarily halting offshore wind leasing on the Outer continental shelf," noting the order "also pauses new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases, or loans for offshore wind projects pending a review of federal wind leasing and permitting practices." 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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