Equinor and bp have joined forces to bid in New York’s third offshore wind solicitation (NY3), having submitted a request to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The companies will compete in the NYSERDA auction for the Beacon Wind II lease area, which has more than 1.3 GW of potential clean energy capacity.
Beacon Wind II, located 60 miles from the Long Island coast, has the capacity to provide clean energy to over one million homes in New York while creating ‘thousands’ of employment in the region. The project is also estimated to generate more than $11 billion in additional economic activity in the state over its lifetime. Equinor and bp’s proposal includes new manufacturing plants for producing cable components for offshore wind projects, as well as supporting port infrastructure facilities. The two companies also intend to work with offshore wind turbine manufacturers to support the establishment of facilities for manufacturing wind turbine components.
Earlier this month, Equinor and RWE decided to collaborate on creating offshore wind farms capable of producing green hydrogen in order to establish value chains for low-carbon hydrogen. In order to replace coal-fired power plants in Germany with gas-fired power plants that are still prepared to use hydrogen, the partners intended to build a low-carbon, renewable hydrogen production facility in Norway. This facility would export hydrogen to Germany via a pipeline.
REGlobal’s Views: Equinor is developing two offshore wind lease areas off New York, Empire Wind and Beacon Wind, which together aim to provide 3.3 GW of power. These projects help Equinor to establish its standing as one of the leading players in US offshore wind market.
