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In New York state’s auction results, Equinor and BP saw off other offshore industry heavyweights to secure victory in the state’s latest 2.5GW offshore wind tender, announced in July.

The deveopers won the rights to supply power from the 1.26GW Empire Wind II project off Long Island and the 1.23GW Beacon Wind site, south of Nantucket.

Together with the 810MW Empire Wind 1 offshore wind farm, Equinor and BP will co-own 3.3GW of offshore wind capacity off New York.

Equinor had already secured a supply contract for the latter project in New York’s first solicitation for offshore wind in 2019 alongside Ørsted and Eversource Energy’s 924MW Sunrise Wind project, taking the state's offshore wind portfolio to nearly 4.2GW.

As part of the latest contract, Equinor has agreed to redevelop the city’s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) and the Port of Albany into working factories.��

According to the New York governor Andrew Cuomo, the redevelopments of the SBT will create one of the largest dedicated US offshore wind port facilities in the country.

And if built, the Port of Albany site will become America’s first offshore wind tower and transition piece manufacturing facility, and will produce components for Equinor’s wind projects.

In a statement, Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor, said that the east coast of the US was “one of the most attractive growth markets for offshore wind in the world”.��

He said: “The successful bids for Empire Wind II and Beacon Wind I represent a game-changer for our offshore wind business in the U.S. and underline Equinor’s commitment to be a leading company in the energy transition.”

In September, BP announced that it would pay $1.1 billion for a 50% stake in both Empire Wind II and Beacon Wind alongside the formation of a strategic partnership with Equinor to develop offshore wind in the US.

While Equinor paid just under $42.5m for the first 816MW Empire Wind site in December 2016, it believes developing and building it will cost approximately $3 billion, according to its website.

The lease for Beacon Wind was acquired in 2019 and has the potential to be developed with a total capacity of more than 2.4 GW, according to Equinor.

The latest 2.5GW procurement award is subject to a purchase and sale agreement being struck with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.