Sunrise Wind Project takes another step toward becoming a reality
On the first day of spring, with cool breezes and a propeller plane flying overhead at Smith Point County Park, Suffolk County officials celebrated a Host Community Agreement with Sunrise Wind, an energy project that will use windmills to provide power to about 600,000 homes.
The offshore wind project, which will be developed 30 miles east of Montauk, marks the second such effort to use renewable energy as a power source. South Fork Wind is currently under construction and will provide energy by the end of the year.
“We are going to have not just jobs; we are going to have careers for people here on Long Island for years and decades to come.”
— Steve Bellone
The Sunrise Wind farm, which Denmark-based Ørsted and east-coast-based Eversource is leading, will make landfall at Smith Point County Park on the South Shore. The lines would feed under the Smith Point Bridge and under William Floyd Parkway.
The effort is a part of New York State’s goal of increasing the use of renewable energy to 70% by 2030 and to 100% by 2040, lowering the state’s carbon footprint and slowing the effect of greenhouse gases on global warming.
In addition to celebrating the environmental benefits of the agreement, officials stood with labor leaders to recognize the job and economic benefits.
“We know that this clean energy future is also about job creation and creating new industries that will put people to work,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said at a press conference announcing the agreement. “We are going to have not just jobs; we are going to have careers for people here on Long Island for years and decades to come.”
The effort will include 100 jobs in an operations and maintenance hub in East Setauket.
Sunrise Wind agreed to pay $170 million over 25 years. Brookhaven will get over $5 million from the project each year, starting in 2025 for the next quarter of a century.
“Clean air and clean water are non-partisan issues. This is a promise we need to keep for our communities.”
— Julie Tighe
The announcement of the agreement came on the same day that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that the world would likely pass a dangerous temperature increase within the next decade, driving global warming to deadly levels unless countries cut back on fossil fuels.
Such an unchecked temperature increase could lead to famine, disease, an increase in violent storms, and a reduction in farmable or habitable land.
The UN report urged nations to cut the use of coal, oil and gas, which contribute to the majority of the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
Recognizing the overlap between the UN report and the announcement about the Host Community Agreement in the county, Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, suggested that the county was doing its part.
The UN “declared that we need to make sustainable, meaningful changes in this decade,” Esposito said during the press conference. “That’s exactly what Suffolk County and the state of New York are doing. We have the low carbon tools to live in a world with lower emissions and now we must use them.”
Changing the way the county produces energy “changes the world” and the “future for the better,” Esposito added.
Julie Tighe, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, applauded the practical and forward-looking element of a concrete plan that includes the start of construction later in 2023.
“Unless we turn these commitments into projects on the ground, it’s just a piece of paper,” Tighe said. This agreement is “one step closer to reality.”
Tighe congratulated political leaders from both parties, including Bellone and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) for coming together on this environmentally, ecologically and economically favorable project.
“Clean air and clean water are non-partisan issues,” Tighe said. “This is a promise we need to keep for our communities.”
The wind farm plan will also include courses at Stony Brook University and SUNY Farmingdale, as well as a National Offshore Wind Training Center in Brentwood. The center will expand access to job opportunities and educational advancement, particularly for high school and college-age New Yorkers entering the job market.
The training center includes a 22-year license agreement with Suffolk County.
