The Biden administration has approved the 2,076MW Empire Wind complex off New York. It consists of the Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farms.
The Equinor-BP project is to be brought online in 2030 and 2031. Vestas is in line to supply 147 of its V236-15.0 turbines.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approval makes Empire Wind the sixth commercial-scale offshore wind farm to get the green light under President Biden’s leadership.
“Today’s approval of the sixth offshore wind project adds to the significant progress towards our administration’s clean energy goals,” said interior secretary Deb Haaland.
However, the future of Empire Wind remains uncertain after New York rejected its developers’ request for higher power prices to offset inflation and supply chain challenges. The state is due to launch a new offshore wind tender later this month in a bid to help struggling projects to advance.
“BOEM and our partners have already achieved so much in pursuit of the administration’s goal of reaching 30GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030,” said BOEM director Elizabeth Klein.
BloombergNEF, however, forecasts that just 16.4GW of US offshore wind will be operational by 2030.
Empire Wind will establish fishery mitigation funds to compensate commercial and for-hire recreational fishers for any losses directly arising from the project.
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