Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine say the town of Brookhaven has come to terms on a host community agreement (HCA) with Sunrise Wind, an offshore wind project that will generate enough clean energy for nearly 600,000 New York homes annually and bring more than $700 million of investment for assets, jobs and programming in Suffolk County.
Sunrise Wind will be the second project to connect to the local grid in Suffolk County, following South Fork Wind – New York’s first offshore wind farm – which is expected to be operational by the end of this year. Both projects are being developed through a joint venture between Ørsted, a producer of offshore wind projects, and Eversource, a New England energy provider.
“Offshore wind is our nation’s clean energy future, and Suffolk County is now firmly at the forefront of this industry,” says Bellone. “In addition to the considerable benefits of this project, including hundreds of union jobs, the host community agreement will generate millions of dollars in funding for important community projects including expanding sewers in the Forge River watershed.”
The project’s wind turbines will be located approximately 30 miles east of Montauk and will deliver clean energy to the Long Island grid via a 124-mile power export cable. The planned onshore route for the transmission line includes making landfall deep under the beach at Smith Point County Park, then routing 18 miles to a point of interconnection with the existing grid in Holbrook.
Similar to the process for South Fork Wind, the HCA for Sunrise Wind is being made in connection with the granting of real estate rights required for installation of the onshore portion of the underground transmission line. Additionally, the Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency has approved a payment-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement for the project.
Under the terms of these agreements, Sunrise Wind would pay a total of $169.9 million over 25 years, inclusive of the $28 million PILOT and $5 million towards construction of a Tri-Hamlet Park and community projects.
Sunrise Wind is scheduled to begin construction later this year. In total, the project will result in more than $700 million of investment by Sunrise Wind over the 25-year project life for strategic assets, jobs and programming in Suffolk County, including:
• $10 million for a national offshore wind training center in Brentwood.
• An operations and maintenance hub in East Setauket that will create up to 100 new long-term jobs.
• The designation of Port Jefferson as the home port of the project’s custom-built 260-foot service operation vessel.
• $5 million for a research and development partnership with Stony Brook University.
• Hundreds of union construction jobs to build the 18-mile underground transmission infrastructure and interconnection facilities.
“The signing of this agreement will embrace our skilled labor workforce and provide lasting jobs in an emerging and rapidly growing technology driven business sector,” says Suffolk County Legislature Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey. “Our local schools at the high school- and college-level are embracing the future with a curriculum that will provide the industry with a properly trained workforce from right here in Suffolk County.”
