New York Governor Confirms USD 500 Million in Offshore Wind Supply Chain and Port Investments

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, together with Division of the Budget Director Robert F. Mujica Jr., outlined the State’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Executive Budget on 18 January, confirming the USD 500 million investment in offshore wind infrastructure, announced in her 2022 State of the State address at the beginning of this month.

The USD 500 million in the Executive Budget will be invested in the development of the State’s ports, manufacturing, and supply chain infrastructure needed to advance the offshore wind industry.

“This nation-leading initiative will create 2,000 jobs in a growing industry, while helping to make New York the offshore wind capital of the country for years to come”, the State government says in the Executive Budget book.

In the State of the State address, Governor Kathy Hotchul said this investment would leverage private capital to deliver more than USD 2 billion in economic activity while creating more than 2,000 good-paying green jobs.

This investment is expected to ensure that New York has the strongest offshore wind energy market along the US Eastern Seaboard, and enable the State to be the offshore wind supply chain hub for other projects up and down the coast.

“Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, work continues on expanding New York State’s offshore wind capacity, building the nation’s largest offshore wind program as the State continues to move toward its goal of 9,000 MW of offshore wind energy by 2035”, it is stated in the Executive Budget.

Several days ago, Governor Hochul, together with the US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, announced the finalisation of contracts between New York State and Empire Wind Offshore LLC and Beacon Wind LLC, project companies set up by Equinor and BP for their Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind 1 projects.

The two offshore wind farms were selected in the State’s offshore wind power solicitation in January 2021 and will, upon completion, yield a combined 2,490 MW of zero-carbon energy, create more than 5,200 jobs, and unleash USD 8.9 billion of economic activity in New York State, according to the New York State government.

Along with the two gigawatt-scale offshore wind farms, Equinor and BP are also developing the 816 MW Empire Wind Phase 1 wind farm which was selected in New York’s first-ever offshore wind solicitation in 2019, alongside Ørsted and Eversource Energy’s Sunrise Wind project, which is currently undergoing federal permitting process.

Meanwhile, New York will soon see its first offshore wind farm, as the South Fork Wind project, also developed by Ørsted and Eversource Energy, has now received the final approval from the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and is all set to begin construction.

Earlier this month, the Department of the Interior announced that it would hold an offshore wind auction for the New York Bight next month, which could lead to up to 7 GW of offshore wind energy capacity being brought to the country’s energy mix with six areas in federal waters offshore New York and New Jersey to be made available for offshore wind developers to bid for – the most areas ever offered in a single auction.