Sunrise Wind developer marks start of onshore construction in Suffolk

The developers of an offshore wind farm billed as the state’s largest on Wednesday celebrated the start of onshore construction through Suffolk County and the prospect of bidding on a newly announced round of state contracts.

At an event in Bellport attended by top federal and state green energy officials, Danish energy giant Orsted segued from the completion of its South Fork Wind Farm earlier this year to the start of considerably larger Sunrise Wind, which will bring its 924 megawatts of power to Long Island from an array off the New England coast.

Newsday reported that preliminary construction work began a year ago, and the company itself released weekly briefings on the progress of a 17.5-mile cable duct and other infrastructure for months.

Orsted says the Sunrise array will be enough to power 600,000 homes, compared with the 130-megawatt South Fork Wind, which is said to power around 70,000.

With federal construction permits recently approved and the purchase of its former joint venture partner's stake complete, Orsted said land-based construction would accelerate through this year, while offshore work, including laying the cable and building the offshore foundations and turbines, is projected to start in 2025. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.

Officials touted the estimated $700 million in economic benefits for Suffolk County from the project and the anticipated 800 primarily union jobs, benefits Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine called a "shot in the arm" that also "gives us a chance to reorient this island and this country" toward renewables.

Doreen Harris, chief executive of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is overseeing offshore wind contracts and bidding, called projects such as Sunrise "transformation," and likened it to building the Brooklyn Bridge. "The scale of offshore wind is truly a game changer," she said, calling 2024 the "summer of shovels."

Asked later what the project would cost, Harris declined to say. "The total cost of the project, I defer to Orsted," she said. Asked the same question, David Hardy, chief executive of Orsted Americas, said, "That’s something that publicly we do not share." Harris said the estimated cost to customers would be "on the order of $1 to $2 a month."

With the LIPA-initiated South Fork project complete and Sunrise Wind underway, Orsted has had "a lot of success" this year, Hardy said, noting that Orsted had also started construction on another project called Revolution Wind. The company has availability in its New England lease area for three more projects larger than Sunrise, he said, and will review the state’s latest bidding solicitation.

But he also acknowledged the company had "some tough times over the last year" as well.

Earlier this year, Orsted announced it was scuttling two long-planned New Jersey projects entirely, and taking more than $4 billion in impairment charges for its offshore wind assets, leading its share price to plummet. At one point earlier this year the company even raised questions about continuing with Sunrise Wind, but those questions evaporated when the state allowed previously awarded developers, including Norway-based Equinor, to rebid the projects under new contract terms that paid them a higher price for their energy.

"We are still committed to the U.S. offshore wind industry," Hardy said. "We’ve got lease areas. The company is still committed to the U.S. market ... We’re just trying to make prudent decisions for our investors."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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