Equinor is moving forward with its Empire Wind offshore wind development, which will be the first to plug into the NYC power grid, despite numerous industry challenges.

New York

Equinor is pressing ahead with its Empire Wind offshore wind development, which will be the first to connect to New York City's power grid. The company is investing $5 billion in the project, relying on federal tax credits and incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act to recoup about 40% of its costs. However, proposed legislation could reduce these incentives for future projects, creating uncertainty for the broader offshore wind industry.

The project has also faced regulatory hurdles, including a temporary stop work order that was later reversed. Despite these challenges, Equinor continues construction at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Industry advocates highlight the importance of such projects for meeting growing energy demands in areas with limited land for alternative renewable sources. Equinor hopes the Empire Wind project will help lower costs and pave the way for future offshore wind developments.

Inside Equinor's NYC offshore wind project

Sticking with renewable energy. The future of the offshore wind industry is in doubt because President Trump's tax bill would eliminate federal tax credits which are integral to launching these new projects. Projects like this one at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in New York where we find our own Pippa Stevens. Hi Pippa. So Ecuador is completely redeveloping this terminal behind me in order to support its empire wind one project that's off the shores of Long Island. Now it is a really big investment for Ecuador. Five billion dollars net of credits and those credits are really instrumental. Ecuador expects to recoup about 40 percent of its costs thanks to that investment tax credit as well as credits in the inflation reduction act. Now since this project has started construction they are confident they will get that full 40 percent. But the same cannot be said for future projects. And that's because the tax bill that's making its way through Congress right now would slash a lot of those incentives. And that is just the latest regulatory hurdle that this industry has had to deal with. Back in April President Trump issued a stop work order for this very project. Ecuador halted all of its offshore construction. They did continue constructing here at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal at a cost of 50 million dollars per week. And they were literal hours away from pulling the entire project when they got word that the stop work order was reversed on May 19th. And Morgan when you think about these projects that take a lot of upfront capital and are very long lead times. Ecuador first got involved here in back in 2016. If you have that sort of flip flopping policy on the regulatory front it just adds another major challenge that these projects have to contend with. Yeah it's a it's a major dynamic. I want to go back to the incentives piece of this. If you see incentives for future projects such as this slashed in this bill is that money that's just saved for taxpayers. It's less spending or is that money that's going to be redirected somewhere else. Yeah. So in theory it's less spending that could be redirected for other things like Medicaid. And that of course has been one of the sticking points as this bill makes its way through Congress. But if you look forward the energy picture is really uncertain. We are seeing load growth meaningful load growth for the first time in two decades. When you think about electrification reshoring add in data centers we need more power sources. And when you look at places like New York City there is not a whole lot of available land for things like large solar arrays with backup storage. And so offshore wind is one of really the only viable options. Plus nuclear is a 2030 and beyond story. Look at gas turbines. You can't even get one until 2030 at this point. And so you know a lot of advocates for this industry say why aren't we taking advantage of this free resource which is the wind. However in order to get that cost curve to come down you do need those initial first of their kind projects. And so that's what Ecuador is hoping this empire wind offshore project will showcase and then pave the way for future projects down the road.

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