The offices of the energy company Equinor were photographed in Norway on February 6, 2019.
Odin Jaeger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Norwegian Equinor has been awarded a major contract to supply renewable energy to New York State from two offshore wind farms located on the east coast.
In an announcement Wednesday, the company said it was the largest “offshore wind transaction” ever made in the United States – and also “one of the largest renewable energy acquisitions in the United States to date.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Equinor and its partner BP will supply New York with renewable energy from the Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind 1 projects.
The two companies will also work with New York to develop the South Brooklyn Sea Terminal and the Port of Albany in what Equinor has described as “large-scale offshore wind power plants.”
Last year, BP agreed to take 50% stake in the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects at Equinor, in an agreement to be concluded in early 2021.
The Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind 1 developments will have a capacity of 1,260 and 1,230 megawatts (MW, respectively).. The contract announced on Wednesday will complete another energy agreement in the 816 MW Empire Wind 1 project. Capacity refers to the maximum quantity that installations can produce, not to what they currently generate.
When completed, Equinor says the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind general projects will be able to power more than a million homes.
In a statement, Equinor CEO Anders Opedal described the East Coast of the United States as “one of the most attractive offshore wind energy markets in the world.”
Although it may have potential, the US is still somewhat far from matching other parts of the world when it comes to scale.
The country’s first offshore wind farm – the 30 MW five-turbine Block Island wind farm, which is operated by Danish company Orsted – began commercial operations only at the end of 2016.
By comparison, Europe is hosting a number of huge wind projects. In November last year, Orsted announced that the 752 MW Borssele 1 and 2 offshore plant was fully operational, claiming that it could supply enough electricity to power 1 million households.
In plans set for the end of last year, the European Union said it wanted offshore wind capacity to reach 300 gigawatts by the middle of the century.
While both Equinor and BP are trying to develop more renewable energy projects, they remain major players in the oil and gas sector.