New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has confirmed the start of construction on New York’s largest offshore wind project, Sunrise Wind, a 924MW wind farm developed by Ørsted. Once completed, the project will provide enough clean energy to power approximately 600,000 New York homes.
The project will be located approximately 30 miles (48 kilometres) east of Montauk, New York, with an approved transmission route connecting to the state’s electricity grid at the Holbrook Substation in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County. As a mature project, Sunrise Wind has already completed all major federal and state permitting milestones and received approval of its Construction and Operations Plan (COP) from the US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on June 21, 2024.
Sunrise Wind is now completely owned by Ørsted following Eversource Energy's divestment of its 50 per cent share in the project. The purchase price at closing to acquire Eversource’s share is US$152 million.
At signing in January 2024, the transaction was valued at US$230 million. The revised closing figure reflects adjustments made due to lower actual versus forecast CAPEX spend between signing and closing.