Newsday - Looking for a windfall from offshore wind farms
Long Island companies and unions are ramping up their efforts to win a share of the more than $1.2 billion in spending and 2,500 jobs that offshore wind farms are projected to bring to New York State over the next five years.
Sixty businesses and unions in Nassau and Suffolk counties have registered with a state database that wind farm developers will use when putting out bids for work. But competition will be fierce: The database has nearly 850 entries from North America, Europe and Asia.
“We see this as a huge business opportunity,” said Greg Penza, founder and CEO of ULC Robotics in Hauppauge, whose drones have been used since 2018 to inspect steel foundations supporting the turbines at the only offshore wind farm in the United States, near Block Island, Rhode Island.
ULC Robotics hopes to eventually employ 50 to 60 pilots and crew members for offshore wind-farm related work, CEO Greg Penza said. Credit: Howard Schnapp
“Right now, this is a nascent business for us, but we are anticipating it will grow and grow,” he said. “Five years from now, we hope to be employing 50 to 60 pilots and crew members, and to be flying UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] from Maine to Virginia” to help with the construction and maintenance of offshore wind farms.
Two international companies are driving the region's wind energy business: Orsted, the Danish company that operates the Block Island farm, and Equinor of Norway.
Orsted, the world's largest offshore wind energy developer, plans two projects off the East End: Sunrise Wind Farm and South Fork Wind Farm. Equinor’s project, Empire Wind Farm, will be located off Jones Beach.
New York State is providing incentive payments to support construction and operation of the Sunrise and Empire farms for 25 years. The payments will result in an average increase of 73 cents per month on residential electric bills, according to a state report published in October.
Together, Sunrise and Empire will have the capacity to generate nearly 1,700 megawatts by 2024, enough electricity to power more than one million homes. The South Fork farm is smaller, producing 130 megawatts for 70,000 homes, but is expected to come online earlier, in 2022.
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