NYC Mayor Adams to turn Brooklyn port into offshore wind hub

New York City will be transforming a major warehousing and manufacturing port into a hub for offshore wind production, Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced on Thursday. 

The wind farm, to be built at the city-owned South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, will be one of the largest offshore wind port facilities in America, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC). Construction of the site will help achieve New York’s goals of producing 100 percent clean electricity by 2040, a news release from NYCEDC said. 

“With this investment, the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will soon be transformed into one of the largest offshore wind port facilities in the nation,” Adams said in a statement, noting that offshore wind in New York is expected to support 13,000 local jobs and generate $1.3 billion in average annual investment.

“This is a transformative moment for New York City and our clean energy future — a future of sustainable power, good-paying jobs, and climate justice,” Adams added.

The port — built in the 1960s as a container terminal — will host power interconnection infrastructure for New York’s Empire Wind 1 project, an 816-megawatt site being built about 14 miles from Jones Beach State Park, according to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Empire Wind 1, a project of Norway-based Equinor subsidiary Equinor Wind U.S., is slated to be complete in 2026.

In the future, the port will also serve as a support hub for Equinor projects Empire Wind 2 and the Beacon Wind, the NYCEDC news release said. The 1,260-megawatt site Empire Wind 2, adjacent to Empire Wind 1, is expected to be complete in 2027, according to NYSERDA. The 1,230-megawatt Beacon facility, about 60 miles east of Montauk Point, is scheduled to be operational by 2028.

The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will also house heavy lift platforms on the 39th Street Pier for wind turbine staging and installation for Equinor and other developers, the NYCEDC news release said.

The project is the result of deal among NYCEDC, Equinor, BP and Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, L.P., according to NYCEDC. As part of the agreement, NYCEDC and Equinor are supporting training for a diverse pool of local workers — particularly including minority- and women-owned business enterprise contractors, the news release said.

“By building this new industry in the right way, we will continue to advance an equitable recovery and make our environment healthier as well,” Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer said in a statement.

Magalie Desroches Austin, director of the Mayor’s Office of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises, echoed these sentiments, stressing the importance of “economic, racial and gender equity” and describing the project as “critical to the long-term sustainability of the greatest city on Earth.”

The project also received $25 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation in December from the federal Maritime Administration through the 2021 Port Infrastructure Development Grants, according to NYCEDC. The funding was made possible through the joint facilitation of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Schumer said in statement.

“Today I am proud to see it moving forward at full speed,” Schumer added. “The federal investment will support good paying, green jobs for a community that has borne the burden of pollution, while helping New York State reach its emissions goals.”