By GREGORY ZELLER //
The most ambitious regional socioeconomic initiative since the Long Island’s aerospace heydays is getting a nice tax break.
Sunrise Wind, a joint venture of Danish multinational Ørsted A/S and Connecticut-based Eversource Energy, has earned an incentives package from the Town of Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency. The undisclosed deal – which the IDA unofficially approved in November and officially closed Dec. 30 – will help Sunrise Wind redevelop a vacant 59,525-square-foot building on a 4.5-acre East Setauket lot.
Featuring custom office and warehouse spaces, spare parts storage and spaces dedicated to “marine coordination,” according to the IDA, the overhauled will serve as Sunrise Wind’s de facto headquarters. Construction is expected to be completed by 2024.
Frederick Braun III: Leading the way.
Sunrise Wind is leading the race to become the first Ørsted/Eversource joint venture to begin generating and distributing wind energy in Long Island waters. When complete, the project – which promises 800 construction-phase jobs and thousands of operational and indirect jobs, according to project specifications – will provide enough clean, renewable energy to power nearly 600,000 homes.
Those 924-or-so megawatts are a big forward step on New York’s ambitious clean-energy journey, which includes the development and distribution of enough offshore-wind energy to power 6 million homes by 2035.
To that end, the East Setauket operations center figures to be increasingly busy over the next decade, as new Ørsted/Eversource wind farms – including South Fork Wind, projected to generate 132 megawatts for East Hampton homes, and Revolution Wind, scheduled to aim 704 megawatts at Connecticut and Rhode Island – power up.
With Long Island poised to become a national leader in offshore-wind power generation and distribution, supporting Sunrise Wind’s $37.8 million operations center was a no-brainer for the Town of Brookhaven Industrial Development Agency, according to Chairman Frederick Braun III.
“We’re extremely pleased that Sunrise Wind is locating its operations facility in the Town of Brookhaven, playing a key role in the town’s clean-energy leadership,” the chairman noted. “This project will bring new investment to the town and many good-paying jobs.
“(We) look forward to seeing this new operations and maintenance facility provide critical support for the regional development of offshore wind.”
