Equinor plans to place bids into New York and New Jersey offshore wind auctions using the unused part of its lease area south of Long Island, which will become the Empire Wind Phase 2 project, Siri Kindem, president of Equinor Wind US, told lawmakers in Washington DC.

The 324sq km (80,000 acre) zone in federal waters has about 2GW nameplate generation capacity with 816MW contracted last year in New York State’s first offshore wind power solicitation, according to the US Department of Energy.

The area has gained strategic importance for Equinor since the Norwegian company paid a then-record $42.5m to acquire the lease in a late 2016 competitive auction, a fraction of its value today given surging demand since for offshore wind power from northeastern states.

On 10 September, Equinor announced it had reached agreement with BP to sell it a 50% interest in the Empire Wind lease area, and in another called Beacon Hill with 2.4GW potential off the southern Massachusetts coast for $1.1bn.

Not only is the Empire Wind site the closest to the metropolitan New York City region — the nation’s largest consumer market and a major consumer of electricity — but also to the numerous energy-intensive chemical plants and two oil refineries in northeastern New Jersey.

Equally important, the Empire Wind arrays are positioned to have early access to the best and limited number of export cable routes through The Narrows — the tidal strait separating Brooklyn and Staten Island — which is constrained by navigable depth of water, to reach New York Upper Bay where larger substations are located.

While the US Department of Interior has proposed various commercial offshore wind energy areas to the east and west of Equinor’s, they are not fully vetted by stakeholders and there is no timetable to auction any or all of them.

In July, New York launched a second round for up to 2.5GW of capacity, the largest yet by any state, with bids due by 20 October and contracts executed in the fourth quarter. New Jersey followed last month with a tender for 1.2-2.4GW with a 10 December bid deadline.

This will be Equinor’s second attempt to find off-take for remaining capacity in the zone, which lies 22-56 km (14-35 miles) from the shoreline in Nassau County bordering the densely populated New York City borough of Queens.

In June 2019, New Jersey selected Orsted as the winner of its initial 1.1GW solicitation, the largest for a single project thus far in the US, ahead of Equinor and the Atlantic Shores consortium owned jointly by EDF Renewables and Shell. The Orsted tract is located off the state’s southern coast.

Turning to the 816MW Empire Wind Phase I, which is due to come on line in 2025, Kindem said it will require $3bn in total investments and Equinor has committed $792m in economic benefits to New York state. The project will employ 60 to 80 turbines. The lower number suggests Equinor is considering the latest-generation 13-14MW models from GE and Siemens Gamesa.

In her prepared remarks before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Kindem said: “The transaction [with BP] is in line with Equinor’s renewable strategy to access attractive acreage early and at scale, mature projects, and capture value by de-risking high equity ownership positions,” she said. Empire Wind Phase I is due on line in 2025.

Kindem said Equinor will remain the project operator through the development, construction and operations phases, and it will be equally staffed by BP.

Equinor has submitted a Construction and Operations Plan (COP) to the federal industry regulator, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and is working on a supplement for submittal this month, she told lawmakers.

A COP outlines project construction, operations, and conceptual decommissioning under a commercial wind lease and is a critical part of the application process for a federal permit.

Wind

Equinor plans to place bids for Empire Wind 2 project in NY and NJ offshore wind auctions