New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday announced a 15-year, $191 million plan to make the city a manufacturing and staging center for the offshore wind industry.
The city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) developed the Offshore Wind Vision plan to help meet the state’s goals of 100% clean electricity by 2040 and carbon neutrality by 2050, hoping to create more than 13,000 jobs and generate $1.3 billion in average annual investment.
“New York City is stepping up to confront the climate crisis with bold action,” de Blasio said in a statement. “Investing in our offshore wind industry isn’t only a win for our planet, it also means thousands of new jobs and affordable, clean power for New Yorkers. This plan will have a dramatic impact on our fight against climate change and will help set us on the path towards a clean energy future.”
The plan focuses on sites and infrastructure, business and workforce, and research and innovation. The city committed to developing infrastructure to support construction and operation of offshore wind farms, and promoting efforts to build, stage, install and maintain wind turbines.
In addition, the EDC will make offshore wind a priority public-private investment area through its Public-Private Impact Initiative Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI), and it will launch an offshore wind–focused accelerator, according to the plan.
The plan will “reduce emissions while creating good green jobs,” said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY). “The mayor has long understood the way transforming our energy system will drive our economy to new heights.”
The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) is being transformed into a world-class OSW port to be operated by Equinor, developer of the 1,260-MW Empire Wind project. Equinor will establish a $5 million fund to ensure that low-income communities, people of color, and New Yorkers from environmental justice communities reap benefits from the new investment. (See NY Builds OSW Ports in Brooklyn, Albany, Long Island.)
Activities at SBMT will include a 30% participation goal for minority- and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBE), and any future site development will also contain a goal of at least 30%, according to the plan. To further support M/WBEs, the city will invest in a program that provides education, networking and resource support to businesses with an interest in offshore wind.
“We have the infrastructure in place to create wind manufacturing hubs right here in Brooklyn, such as South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the Red Hook Container Terminal,” Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said in a statement.