Equinor energy company offices photographed in Norway on February 6, 2019.
Odin Jaeger | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Norwegian Equinor has won a major contract to supply renewable energy to New York State from two huge offshore wind farms in East Coast waters.
In an announcement Wednesday, the company said it was the “largest ever” offshore wind deal awarded in the US – and also “one of the largest purchases of renewable energy in the US to date.”
Under the terms of the deal, Equinor and its partner BP will provide 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 Marine Terminal and Port of Albany into what Equinor described as “large-scale industrial offshore wind power plants”.
Last year, BP agreed to take a 50% stake in Equinor’s Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects, in an agreement closing in early 2021.
The Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind 1 developments have a capacity of 1,260 and 1,230 megawatts (MW) respectively. The contract announced Wednesday complements another power agreement for the 816 MW Empire Wind 1 project. Capacity refers to the maximum amount that installations can produce, not what they are currently generating.
When fully completed, Equinor says the overall Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects will each power more than a million homes.
In a statement, Equinor’s CEO, Anders Opedal, described the East Coast of the United States as “one of the most attractive offshore wind growth markets in the world.”
While it has potential, the US is still a long way from rivaling 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, operated by Danish company Orsted – only started commercial operations in late 2016.
In comparison, Europe is home to a number of huge offshore wind projects. Last November, Orsted announced that the 752 MW Borssele 1 & 2 offshore installation was fully operational and claimed it could provide enough electricity to power 1 million homes.
In plans drawn up late last year, the European Union said it wanted its offshore wind capacity to reach 300 gigawatts by the middle of the century.
Although both Equinor and BP are trying to develop more renewable energy projects, they remain important players in the oil and gas sector.