Fishing Industry Remains Concerned with Offshore Wind Power

East End residents will soon be another step closer to wind power and away from fossil fuel; but local commercial fishermen are raising objections. And, East Enders are waiting to hear how much this wind power project will mean for new utility rates.

The federal government earlier this spring approved what it calls a “record of decision” for a Denmark-based company, Orsted, to build one of the largest offshore wind farms planned for Nassau and Suffolk counties. The decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior is among the last steps to build the windfarm, known as Sunrise Wind, an 84-turbine plant, before actual construction can begin.

Orsted said in a news release that the final permit, a construction and operating plan, is expected this summer from the federal government. Orsted recently completed a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind. Orsted said Sunrise Wind is expected to be completed in 2026.

Both Sunrise Wind and South Fork Wind are in the waters off Massachusetts and Rhode Island. South Fork Wind’s cable comes ashore in Wainscott. Sunrise Wind has a power cable running more than 100 miles to Smith Point County Park, before beginning a 17 mile trip through Brookhaven Town to a substation in Holtsville.

The 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind, according to Orsted, will power some 600,000 homes on the East End. Bonnie Brady, executive director of Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told Dan’s Papers that Sunrise Wind will be detrimental to marine life. She says wind turbine blades are made from non-recyclable fiberglass, and that the resin that holds them together is “loaded” with Bisphenol A, a synthetic chemical used to make plastics hard and clear.

Turbine wind blades, she said, move at about 170 miles per hour. Rain storms hit them at about 300 miles per hour, causing what she described as “pitting.” Pitting, she says, leads to delaminating of the blades. There is then a crack in the fiberglass and BPA can be released into the ocean. Additionally, Brady says, Sunrise Wind will use high voltage direct converter stations using what’s known as Cooling Water Intake Systems, the same kind of open water cooling systems that sucks up seawater to cool internal systems “and killed millions of fish larvae yearly…”

Sunrise Wind’s system has been approved to suck up 8.1 million gallons of seawater daily, and release it as 90-degree effluent, using the seawater to cool the electric transmission cable conversion process from alternating current to direct current. This happens before the direct current transmission cable is sent to shore at Smith Point.

“This where fisherman fish,” Brady says, “This is basically our economic zone.”

But Sunrise Wind is a plus for Suffolk County. The plant promises Brookhaven Town and some other local districts some $169 million in tax benefits. Additionally, it will mean a $200 million land-based cable construction contract for one company — Melville-based Haugland Group. New York State has not said how much the project will increase consumer rates. The government’s “record of decision” includes comments of “major adverse impacts” from Sunrise Wind for commercial fisherman due to “the presence of structures, navigational hazards, space-use conflicts, new cable placement and pile driving noise.”

But, it says, the impacts would be “mitigated” by a requirement that Sunrise Wind establish a “direct compensation” program to fishermen impacted by the project. The project is another effort to replace fossil-fuel and gas plants to turn Long Island green, supporters say.

Fossil-fuel and natural gas plants are expected to shut down in the next 25 years. But efforts to turn Long Island green are not always successful. In Long Beach, plans to build an offshore wind farm about 10 miles from the shore has collapsed for the time being. Long Beach residents protested the plan at city council hearings, saying they worried about the impact on health from electric power lines running through their community.

The city council never gave its approval to the project by Equinor and BP for what was called Empire Wind 2. Council members said the project would harm local tourism and residents’ enjoyment of beaches and parklands. The developers said the project was called to a halt due to economic headwinds, inflation, higher interest rates and supply chain disruption. The plans are cancelled unless a new contract is drawn up.