Orsted Begins Construction of 924-Megawatt Offshore Wind Project, Largest in New York

New York Governor Kathy Hochul on July 17 announced the start of construction of the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind, which would be the state’s largest offshore wind project. Governor Hochul also announced the launch of the fifth offshore wind solicitation, building on a 10-point action plan issued last October to support the growing large-scale renewable industry.

Sunrise Wind, being developed by Ørsted, is expected to generate enough power to supply 600,000 households in the state. Sunrise has completed all of its federal and state permitting processes, having received approval of its construction and operations plan from the Department of the Interior in June. The groundbreaking of the project follows significant offshore wind developments in the state in 2024, including the completion of Ørsted’s South Fork Wind, the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. Other developments include the finalization of contracts from New York’s fourth offshore wind solicitation and a historic groundbreaking at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which will support the staging and assembly of offshore wind components and serve as an operations and maintenance hub for the Empire Wind 1 project. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Equinor finalized a new contract for the 810-megawatts Empire Wind 1 project in June.

The Sunrise Wind project is located over 30 miles off of Long Island’s eastern coast, and is set to start commercial operations in 2026.From the Sunrise project site, power will be transmitted to New York’s electrical grid via the Holbrook substation located in Long Island. Manufacture of key components for Sunrise Wind’s foundations will occur at a site in the Capital Region. The regional operations and maintenance hub will be at Port Jefferson.

The deadline to receive proposals in response to the fifth round of solicitations is Sept. 9. NYSERDA will hold a webinar on July 22 to discuss the offshore wind solicitation further. Following this solicitation round, finalization of contracts is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2025. The evaluation of proposals would have weighted criteria, with price considerations weighted at 70 percent, economic benefits of the project at 20 percent and project viability at 10 percent.