Empire Wind project gains key federal approval

Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas, "We're fready to go to work"

The U.S. Department of the Interior today announced approval of the Empire Wind offshore wind project – the Biden Administration’s sixth approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind energy project. The Record of Decision will be published in the Federal Register in the coming days and can be found on the BOEM website.

“The federal Record of Decision is a significant milestone in advancing Equinor and BP’s Empire Wind project to help deliver on state and federal climate ambitions,” said Molly Morris, president, Equinor Renewables Americas. “Empire Wind is a defining project for New York and we continue our work to connect with communities and realize the project’s potential of providing reliable renewable power, creating jobs and spurring economic development. We thank the Biden-Harris Administration for continuing to move these important projects forward and for sending a clear signal that offshore wind will play an important role in America’s energy transition.”

Equinor and BPproposes to develop two offshore wind facilities, known as Empire Wind 1 and Empire Wind 2. The lease area is located about 12 nautical miles (nm) south of Long Island, N.Y., and about 16.9 nm east of Long Branch, N.J. Together these projects would have up to 147 wind turbines with a total capacity of 2,076 megawatts of clean, renewable energy that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) estimates could power more than 700,000 homes each year. The projects would support over 830 jobs each year during the construction phase and about 300 jobs annually during the operations phase.

“BOEM and our partners have already achieved so much in pursuit of the Administration’s goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “Extensive engagement with tribes, other government partners, ocean users, concerned citizens, and more has helped us to avoid or reduce user conflicts while facilitating the responsible development of offshore wind projects. We look forward to continuing our work with them as we move this industry forward.”

The Record of Decision includes measures aimed at avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating the potential impacts that may result from the construction and operation of the project. Among those measures, Empire Wind, LLC has committed to establishing fishery mitigation funds to compensate commercial and for-hire recreational fishers for any losses directly arising from the project.