Equinor secures New York grid connection approval for Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm
Equinor secures New York grid connection approval for Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm | Windpower Monthly
Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project has received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) approval to connect directly into the New York City transmission system.
The large generator interconnection agreement approved by Ferc is between Empire Wind 1, New York ISO (NYISO) and Consolidated Edison Company (Con Edison) of New York.
Empire Wind 1 was selected as a provisional winner in New York’s fourth offshore wind solicitation (NY4) on 29 February, after Enquinor re-submitted the project, having previously withdrawn from its previous contract.
Ferc's interconnection approval means the 810MW offshore wind farm will be able to connect through the Sunset Park onshore substation at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into the New York City electrical grid at Con Edison’s Gowanus substation.
“This federal approval marks the culmination of a years-long process under NYISO and is another important step in allowing Equinor to advance a project that will connect offshore renewable power to Brooklyn and into hundreds of thousands of New York homes,” said Teddy Muhlfelder, vice president of Equinor Renewables Americas.
The project also received approval of its federal construction and operations plan from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management last month.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.