New York Rallies Behind Deepwater ONE Offshore Wind Farm

New York labor unions, civic and environmental organizations and elected officials hosted a rally outside of Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) to show their support for what is to be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm ahead of LIPA’s expected vote to approve the project.

Located off the east end of Long Island, Deepwater Wind’s 90-megawatt, 15-turbine project is expected produce enough energy to power about 50,000 Long Island homes by 2022.

LIPA was expected to approve the offshore wind farm at a meeting scheduled for 20 July 2016. However, LIPA put off the meeting after its partner agency NYSERDA (New York State Energy and Research Development Authority) filed a request for postponement to align the proposed project with New York’s Offshore Wind Master Plan and the state’s Clean Energy Standard.

Following the release of the master plan’s blueprint, LIPA and Deepwater Wind began negotiations on the proposal and the contract is now expected to be signed in early 2017.

Deepwater ONE – South Fork wind farm represents the first phase of a regional offshore wind farm Deepwater Wind proposes to develop some 30 miles southeast of Montauk, New York. The developer said the proposal has been made in response to PSEG-Long Island’s request for new local energy resources serving the South Fork.

Construction of Deepwater ONE – South Fork could begin as early as 2019, Deepwater Wind said.

Deepwater Wind is the developer of the first offshore wind farm in America, the 30MW Block Island Wind Farm, which was put into operation earlier this month.

Additionally, the groups behind the rally have called on LIPA to move forward on the Island-Wide renewable energy Request for Proposal in early 2017 which could include another 210 MW of offshore wind off of Long Island’s south fork.

On 15 December, Statoil Wind US LLC won the most recent Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) offshore wind lease auction securing 80,000 acres off the Rockaways.

”Now it is more urgent than ever for Governor Cuomo to commit to a large-scale, long-term offshore wind program in the State of the State, which is critical to ensure that he meets his goal of powering 50 percent of New York’s energy from renewables by 2030 and provide thousands of new jobs and economic development opportunities throughout the state,” a coalition of organisations led by the Sierra Club said in a joint statement.