Sunrise Wind starts preliminary work for 17.5-mile Brookhaven cable - Newsday
Sunrise Wind starts preliminary work for 17.5-mile Brookhaven cable - Newsday
Long Island
Sunrise Wind starts preliminary work for 17.5-mile Brookhaven cable
A barge off Smith Point, as seen from Moriches Inlet, conducts seafloor survey work for the Sunrise Wind farm in 2020. Credit: Newsday / Mark Harrington
Sunrise Wind this month began preliminary construction work for a 17.5-mile underground cable for its offshore wind farm through Brookhaven Town, even as its developers await word from the state on whether its contract can be adjusted upward to accommodate ballooning costs.
In filings with the state Department of Public Service in June and July, Sunrise Wind requested and received approval to begin phase-one of construction for the cable, which includes “clearing and construction activities within the project boundary area,” chiefly in Holtsville.
The state gave its authorization to start construction on July 13. The $4.2 billion project, which promises to power some 600,000 homes, is expected to be operational in 2025.
Meaghan Wims, a spokeswoman for Sunrise Wind, confirmed preliminary construction work had begun, but said bigger work activities wouldn’t come until early next year.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Sunrise Wind has begun preliminary construction work for a 17.5-mile underground cable for its offshore wind farm through Brookhaven Town.
- The project includes a 6.2-mile undersea cable that will make landfall at Smith Point, before it begins a 17.5-mile run to connect to a LIPA substation in Holbrook.
- Sunrise Wind recently asked the state whether its contract can be adjusted upward to accommodate ballooning costs.
“Sunrise Wind development continues to progress and the project remains on-track” to be operational in 2025, she said. “We expect that the most significant construction activities will begin in early 2024.”
The project includes a 6.2-mile undersea cable in state waters that will make landfall at Smith Point, before it begins its 17.5-mile run along William Floyd Parkway and Horseblock Road to the Long Island Expressway South Service Road before connecting to a LIPA substation in Holbrook. The offshore cable will run more than 100 miles in federal waters to a turbine field set to be built off the Massachusetts/Rhode Island coast.
For the work on land, Sunrise Wind has confirmed that it has “all materials necessary to commence the phase one work,” according to its state filings. The company said it planned to install erosion and sediment control equipment prior to starting work, which it said it expected to begin on or before July 10.
Work underway includes “civil work” at an onshore converter Station at 608 Union Ave. in Holtsville, and preparation and use of two “laydown yards” at 580 Union Ave., Holtsville, and 60 Zorn Blvd., Yaphank.
Last month, Sunrise Wind’s developers said they “would not be able to obtain a final investment decision allowing it to fully construct the project” unless the state allowed their previously negotiated contract to be adjustable for rising material, construction and other costs. Other wind farm developers, including Empire Wind developers Equinor/bp, made similar requests.
Observers say the state is in a bind to approve the request, which it has already included in a new round of wind farms set to be awarded this year.
“The Public Service Commission is in a no-win position, but what is certain is that whatever choice it makes, offshore wind prices are going to rise, and every New York ratepayer will pay their share of the increase,” James Hanley, a fellow at the fiscally conservative Empire Center think tank in Albany, wrote earlier this month.
But Bob Catell, chairman of the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium, said those cost questions won’t stop the projects.
“Offshore wind energy projects are very important to our energy future and will go forward,” he said. “As with any other major development, there may be some bumps along the way that need to be overcome.”
Separately this week, the Brookhaven Town Industrial Development Agency said it closed on an agreement that will provide more than $90 million tax breaks in support of Sunrise Wind’s land-based construction, which will support hundreds of local jobs. The package includes $87.4 million in tax savings for construction of the converter station and cable duct banks. It also includes $2.6 million in tax breaks for an operations center in East Setauket.
In April, Newsday reported that Sunrise Wind awarded Long Island’s largest wind-farm contract to date to Melville-based Haugland Group for construction of the cable. The $200 million-plus contract is expected to bring more than 400 jobs during construction and provide the region with an economic boost through use of regional contractors, food vendors and workforce development. Work is slated to be substantially complete in 15 months, by the end of 2024, Haugland said.
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.