NY tentatively approves 3 offshore wind farms, including Ravenswood project

 Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration gave a tentative green light Tuesday to three new wind farms off New York City’s shores, including one project that would shift the hulking Ravenswood Generating Station in Long Island City to 100% renewable energy.

The long-awaited announcement marks a major step in New York state’s continuing shift to clean energy, as it works to meet its legally mandated goal of generating 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. But it also comes after Hochul vetoed a bill last week that would have fast-tracked a similar wind farm off of Long Island, and took another action in recent weeks that drew condemnation from wind-power advocates.

Once they come online in 2030, the new wind farms are expected to generate about 4 gigawatts of power, according to the state. That number jumps to 6.4 gigawatts when combined with 22 additional land-based projects also approved on Tuesday, which the Hochul administration says is enough to account for about 12% of the state’s energy needs.

“This industry continues to just blossom, and we're continuing to make sure that we make the investments now,” Hochul told reporters after making the announcement in Long Island City.

The three offshore wind farms all have their roots in New York City and Long Island, including a project known as Attentive Energy One, which centers on the Ravenswood facility — whose four red-and-white smokestacks loom over the East River on the Long Island City waterfront.

The 1.4 gigawatt wind farm will be located 54 miles from New York’s shore and will ultimately connect to the Ravenswood facility, which would be converted from natural gas and fuel oil to wind and geothermal energy.

The second project — known as Community Offshore Wind — would be located 64 miles offshore, and would connect to ConEd’s Brooklyn Clean Energy Hub. The third, Excelsior Wind, would be located 23 miles from the shore, and would connect to the East Garden City substation on Long Island, according to NYS Energy Research & Development Authority, or NYSERDA.

NYSERDA will now enter into contract negotiations with the owners of the three projects — major clean-energy partnerships that include companies like TotalEnergies, Rise Light & Power, National Grid Ventures and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, among others — before they move ahead with the plans.

The wind farms are expected to add an average of about $2.93 a month to consumer electric bills over the life of the projects, according to Hochul’s office.

“Those are the prices they bid, so that is what it will cost,” NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris told reporters Tuesday.

Tuesday’s tentative contract awards come as Hochul’s administration is at odds with the developers of four previously awarded wind-farm projects, including European energy companies Equinor, BP and Orsted A/S.

Earlier this month, the state Public Service Commission rejected the companies’ request to boost subsidies for the projects amid rapidly rising costs — which would have resulted in higher consumer rate hikes than originally anticipated. Hochul backed the decision, and Equinor warned it may re-evaluate its commitment, according to Politico.

On Friday, Hochul vetoed an Equinor-backed bill that would have paved the way for the construction of a transmission line underneath a public beach in the Nassau County city of Long Beach for one of the city’s wind farms. Hochul cited opposition from local officials as a reason for her veto.

Clean-energy advocates derided both those decisions, saying that they threaten to imperil the state’s ambitious climate goals, which were set in the state’s Climate Act and commit to cutting the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030 and 85% by 2050.

The New York Offshore Wind Alliance, a coalition of groups that includes top environmental organizations and some of the companies behind the wind farms, was among the earlier decisions' critics.

The Public Service Commission’s denial “puts these projects in serious jeopardy and deals a potentially fatal blow to the progress these projects have made to localize clean energy manufacturing, reinvigorate New York's ports and harbors, train and deploy New York's skilled union workers, and revitalize environmental justice communities," said Fred Zalcman, the alliance’s director.

But on Tuesday, the same alliance praised the Hochul administration’s announcement, saying it shows the governor is ready to “double down” on wind energy and that it “will go a long way towards instilling confidence in a market that has recently faced tremendous headwinds.”

“We look forward to working with the Governor and other stakeholders in getting these early-stage projects to the finish line,” Zalcman said in a statement.

NY tentatively approves 3 offshore wind farms, including Ravenswood project - Gothamist