The U.S. Department of the Interior on Wednesday approved the construction and operations plan for the 132-MW South Fork Wind Project being built for the Long Island Power Authority, the second major offshore wind project in the country to move forward following the July permitting of Vineyard Wind.

“We have no time to waste in cultivating and investing in a clean energy economy that can sustain us for generations,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “Just one year ago, there were no large-scale offshore wind projects approved in the federal waters of the United States. Today there are two, with several more on the horizon.”

A joint venture between Ørsted and Eversource Energy (NYSE:ES), South Fork will be located approximately 19 miles southeast of Block Island, R.I., and 35 miles east of Montauk Point, N.Y.

“New York state is facing the challenges of climate change head-on, and we thank the Biden-Harris administration for their steadfast support,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “With today’s permitting milestone, South Fork Wind is set to be New York’s historic first offshore wind farm providing clean energy where it is needed most. Our nation-leading climate and offshore wind goals demand bold action, and moving South Fork Wind forward brings us closer to a cleaner and greener future.”

Interior’s approval of South Fork’s plan to install 12 or fewer turbines is conditioned on several measures to avoid, minimize and mitigate potential impacts. Prior to construction, the developer must submit to Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management a facility design report and a fabrication and installation report.

The Environmental & Energy Law Program at Harvard University forecast that BOEM’s final approval might indicate how the agency “will address the concerns of the fishing industry when considering alternatives, mitigation measures and cumulative impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act.”

Fishermen, environmentalists, labor unions and local residents broadly support the project, but some opponents have filed suits in state courts to have its power purchase agreements nullified. (See BOEM Hears Public Support for South Fork OSW.)

Newsday reported Wednesday that the nonprofit Government Justice Center filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Suffolk County on behalf of two Long Island ratepayers alleging that the Long Island Power Authority ignored its own criteria for power production resources in entering into a contract for the South Fork Wind Farm. The suit called the project’s power unreliable “because it depends on an intermittent resource to generate electricity.”

The main point in the September 2021 complaint signed by Wainscott resident Simon V. Kinsella, however, was price, not reliability. The PPA pays 22 cents/kWh versus the 8 cents being paid to the neighboring Sunrise Wind Project, the complaint said.

The request for proposals “was a manipulated, noncompetitive solicitation,” Kinsella argued, in which the company administering the procurement, PSEG Long Island, awarded a contract to its existing business partner, Deepwater Wind, at a rate that exceeded the market rate by 53% at the time. Deepwater Wind was the original developer of the South Fork project.

The complaint also alleges that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo inappropriately interfered with the procurement process earlier this year by pressuring the LIPA Board of Trustees, the majority of whom were appointed by him, to approve a contract for $1.6 billion, which they did on Jan. 25.

The project’s “gross profit (excluding operations and maintenance) is $885 million, representing 120% of the cost ($740 million),” the complaint said.

LIPA determined that the totality of South Fork’s benefits outweighed the variable nature of wind power, spokesman Andrew Berger told RTO Insider.

“As part of the solicitation for resources, the South Fork Wind project was paired with transmission, battery storage and demand response. Thus, the awarded portfolio of projects produced more benefits to customers than the alternatives,” Berger said. “As with all LIPA contracts, the procurement was also independently reviewed and approved by the New York attorney general’s office and the state comptroller’s office.”

LIPA also pointed out that larger projects such as Sunrise Wind, able to spread fixed costs over greater energy production, have lower per-unit costs than smaller projects.