New York has chosen two large-scale offshore wind projects, which can power one million homes with clean energy, in the state’s maiden tender.

The two wind farms with a total electricity generating capacity of 1.7GW are said to the single largest renewable energy procurement by any US state in history.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed the offshore wind agreement, which is regarded as the nation’s largest, for the two winds.

The two big projects are expected to create over 1,600 jobs and could lead to economic activity worth $3.2 billion in the state.

Besides, the offshore wind projects are expected to advance the state’s goal to have 9GW offshore wind capacity by 2035.

The government stated: “Additionally, today’s offshore wind announcement is expected to catalyze the first generation of major United States supply chain investments by the fast-growing offshore wind sector, positioning New York to be the hub of the nation’s burgeoning offshore wind industry.”

The wind projects that have emerged winners in the New York’s first offshore wind solicitation include the Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind development projects of Equinor and Bay State Wind, a joint venture of Ørsted A/S and Eversource Energy, respectively.

The Empire Wind project will have a capacity of 816MW and will deliver renewable power from the New York Bight to New York City.

Expected to create more than 800 local jobs, the project will use South Brooklyn as its operations and maintenance base. It will offer high-quality jobs to the community located near the project’s proposed interconnection point at Con Edison’s Gowanus substation.

Construction on the Empire Wind project is anticipated to commence in 2022, with commercial operations beginning in December of 2024.

The Sunrise Wind project, the second one selected in the tender, will have a capacity of 880MW.

Con Edison Transmission and the New York Power Authority will support the development of the project’s transmission facilities.

Expected to create more than 800 local jobs, the Sunrise Wind project is expected to see the start of construction in 2022, with commercial operation in May 2024.

Through three separate procurements, the state has awarded a total of approximately 4.7GW of renewable energy contracts since March 2018.

Overall, the projects are expected to generate enough electricity to power two million homes, apart from meeting approximately 10% of New York’s electricity requirements by 2025.

  Andrew Cuomo, Bay State Wind, Empire Wind Project, Equinor, Eversource Energy, New York, Orsted, Sunrise Wind project, USA, Wind industry news