COURIER L 14 IFE, APRIL 23-29, 2021
Pols tour home of
future wind hub to
kick off Earth Week
The 39th Street pier, now home to empty warehouses, will be converted to support the assembly
of wind turbines. Photo by Jessica Parks
BY JESSICA PARKS
Sunset Park advocates and elected
offi cials kicked off Earth Week on Monday
by celebrating the South Brooklyn
Marine Terminal’s position on the
frontlines of the climate crisis.
“This victory for the community
brings us one step closer to a working,
sustainable waterfront by creating a
production hub for the offshore wind
industry in New York City,” said Congressmember
Nydia Velazquez.
A years-long fi ght to revitalize the
southern Brooklyn neighborhood’s
waterfront has culminated with the
terminal playing an integral role in
the development of three incoming
offshore wind farms off of New York’s
coast — serving as a wind-turbine assembly
plant that is projected to create
1,200 jobs in the community.
“This project is well suited to meet the
goals set out fi ve years ago by Sunset Park
waterfront planning and jobs passport to
maximize the waterfront’s potential as an
economic hub of traditional and innovative
industry, job creation and workforce
development,” Velazquez said.
The plan was announced in January
after the project’s operator, Norwegian
energy company Equinor, was
given the go-ahead by the New York
State Energy Research and Development
Authority to build two offshore
wind farms off the coast of Long Island
and named the Sunset Park marine
terminal as their new assembly site.
Pols and community leaders lauded
the $200 million in funding authorized
by the energy development authority
to reconstruct the terminal’s dilapidated
39th Street pier into one that can
support wind turbines that are said
to be as tall as the Chrysler Building.
The state funds will be matched by private
funds to complete the project.
“We applaud NYSERDA for moving
$200 million to jumpstart the offshore
wind industry in the state and
transform SBMT into a wind port,”
said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive
director of environmental justice organization
Uprose.
Yeampierre called the coming port
“a necessary investment to position
Sunset Park — an environmental justice
community at the frontlines of the
climate and COVID crisis — to become
a regional clean energy hub and use
our industrial sector to build climate
adaptation, innovation and resilience.”
The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal,
located west of Industry City on
First Avenue, will serve as the staging,
installation and maintenance hub for
the offshore wind equipment of Equinor’s
two Empire wind farms, located
about 50 miles off the coast from the
Verazzano Bridge, and for a third incoming
farm off the coast of eastern
Long Island. The three wind farms are
projected to generate enough energy
for the state to power more than 1.8
million homes for a year.
“Right here will live a wind-turbine
staging, an installation facility, operation
maintenance facilities and a substation
to support the Empire and Beacon
wind projects off the coast of Long
Island,” said Rachel Loeb, acting president
of the city’s Economic Development
Corporation, which played a crucial
negotiating role in the initiative.
The 73-acre space will allow turbines
for the three farms to be assembled
concurrently. Assembly is expected
to begin in about three years
after permitting and a necessary reconstruction
of the 39th Street pier, where
dredging and bulkhead construction
will allow it to withstand the massive
turbine components it will handle.
“That will be the main birthing area
for receiving the vessels with the largest
components and all of that area has
to be upgraded,” said Mike Stamatis,
operator of Sustainable-SBMT, a consortium
consisting of Red Hook Terminal
Enterprises and Industry City and
the marine terminal’s leaseholder.
The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal
is the fi rst of its kind in the
United States, according to pols, who
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