High Hopes and Headwinds: New York's Offshore Wind in 2024

By Barry Wygel, Alliance for Clean Energy New York

There have been several puns employed to describe New York’s offshore wind industry in 2023, with “facing headwinds” being the most popular in the media. But it is an accurate description. As with any new industry, there have been a number of hurdles to clear, from the expected, like developing a supply chain and choosing specific transmission paths, to the unexpected, like the record post-pandemic inflation. But 2023 also saw wins. We saw the first offshore wind power in U.S. history be delivered to Long Island from the South Fork Wind project, and we saw recommitments from the governor and NYSERDA to keep the industry on track.

2024 is an important year for the industry as new projects get announced, infrastructure statewide gets built, and more employees complete workforce development programs and are ready to work.

Governor Hochul and NYSERDA have pledged on multiple occasions that the state will take bold and innovative steps to cost-effectively deploy at least 9GW of offshore wind power by 2035, consistent with New York’s landmark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act mandate, and considering how many years these projects take to construct, now is the time for New York to step up its game. Offshore wind is crucial to our overall green energy transition, with 9GW providing enough power for 6 million homes. A fun fact we like to use in our communications is a single spin of an offshore wind turbine can power a home for two days.

First up in 2024: We expect the South Fork Wind project to be fully energized. Located 35 miles east of Montauk, this smaller project will power more than 70,000 Long Island homes.

Next: We expect NYSERDA to announce new contract awards for offshore wind projects by the end of February. We don’t know how many projects or of what size will be announced, but in the wake of last year’s PSC decision not to adjust existing contracts due to inflation, the projects announced in this round may include ones already under active development, but with the goal of being more viable. These include the 934 MW Sunrise Wind Project and the 810 MW Empire Wind I project. Additionally, Community Offshore has proposed a second development phase of its NY Bight project.

Later in 2024, we expect to see another round of awards aimed at getting New York closer to the 9GW goal.

In October 2023, Governor Hochul released a “New 10-Point Renewable Energy Action Plan,” with many of her actions being aimed at supporting the offshore wind industry. Without these projects, our CLCPA mandates of 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030 will not happen, let alone our longer-term objectives of decarbonizing the grid by 2040 and economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2050.

These actions include looking to expand the lease areas for offshore wind including deeper waters, committing to announcing the awards mentioned above, and investing more than $700 million in the offshore wind supply chain.

Other things to keep an eye on in 2024 include news at both the Port of Albany and the Port of Coeymans, as they look to be part of the supply chain, which will provide hundreds of high-paying jobs upstate; and continued progress in the revitalization of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a cutting-edge marshaling port, providing hundreds of high-quality jobs in the environmental justice community of Sunset Park. We hope to see positive milestones continue in neighboring states as they overcome the same headwinds. Workforce development programs will continue to grow. New York is expected to need 10,000 workers for the offshore wind industry, and those jobs come with an average salary of $100,000. We hope to see continued progress in the development and construction of transmission projects that will help the offshore wind projects deliver the power generated to where it is needed.

Yes, the industry is facing headwinds, but as any pilot will tell you, headwinds are important; it’s what makes a plane take off. These headwinds will also help the offshore wind industry take off, and without any wind, we wouldn’t have an industry anyway.