The downstate New York electricity grid is currently powered almost entirely by fossil fuels, primarily fracked gas. This includes Long Island and the New York City metro area.
However, in the past year, offshore wind has officially entered the New York electricity grid and is now delivering clean, renewable electricity to 70,000 Long Island homes with just 12 turbines.
South Fork Wind is New York’s first offshore wind farm. It’s located 35 miles east of Montauk. South Fork is currently adding 132 MW of much-needed power into the grid. This offsets the need to build a new power plant and related infrastructure to power the high, local demand for summer air conditioning.
At the Sierra Club we prioritize a transition away from fossil fuels for many different reasons, including, the role that they play in fueling the climate crisis and the impact to the health of those living near polluting facilities.
Offshore wind is emissions-free electricity that generates good jobs with good salaries too. Besides the construction and maintenance, New York ports could become hubs for offshore wind work up and down the East coast, providing more jobs. This is the backbone of the future economy: energy generation that does not harm our health or the environment shared by all living things.
The downstate New York region is incredibly dense, we don’t have a lot of space for new utility scale energy infrastructure on land. Offshore wind is a perfect solution for providing electricity to Long Island and the entire New York City metro-area. New York’s coast is perfectly positioned for offshore wind development, we have a relatively shallow sea floor that extends out for miles and we also have ideal wind conditions for generating power. Many of these projects will be 10 or more miles off of the coast, making them almost invisible from the land. South Fork wind, for example, is 35 miles east of Montauk. You cannot see these turbines from shore.
Offshore wind is a source of energy that will not be depleted - it’s limitless. For Long Islanders, this is local power that is generated near where it's needed, bringing us closer to energy independence.
The Sierra Club Long Island Group’s response to some of the main concerns we’ve heard about offshore wind:
Whales: all whale necropsies on Long Island show ship collisions or discarded fishing net entanglement as the cause of death. Extreme care is taken during construction of offshore wind turbines. Construction is not scheduled during whale migration times and is suspended if whales are known to be nearby.
Birds: turbine blades may kill some birds, but Audubon says there are more killed by speeding cars, domestic cats, or glass in buildings. And those pale in comparison to the destructive impact on birds from fossil fuel extraction and burning, whether directly or through the climate change they cause. Also, according to the Smithsonian and a number of other sources, a study in Norway being replicated around the world showed that when one blade on each turbine is painted black, birds avoid the blades.
Cables and EMFs: Cables carrying power are buried and shielded preventing the emission of electro-magnetic waves.