BY ROSE ADAMS
Sunset Park environmentalists
and Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams are calling
on the state to invest $200 million
into the improvements
needed to turn a local port
into a thriving offshore wind
energy manufacturing hub.
The upgrades would allow
the largely unused 72-acre
South Brooklyn Marine Terminal
to house a bustling wind
turbine assembly hub that
would create thousands of jobs
and more than 1,500 megawatts
of clean energy — enough to
power half a million homes for
20 years, according to the state.
The city-owned South Brooklyn
Marine Terminal, which is
operated by a partnership between
Industry City and the
Red Hook Container Terminal,
is one of several ports competing
for the state funds. The New
York State Energy Research
COURIER L 12 IFE, NOV. 6-12, 2020
and Development Authority
(NYSERDA), which is in charge
of the bidding process, will select
winners later this year.
The bid for the Sunset
Park port was put forward by
Norwegian energy company
Equinor, which plans to use
the South Brooklyn Marine
Terminal as an assembly site
for the turbines in its two offshore
wind farms off of Nantucket
and Long Island.
Equinor, which was selected
for New York’s fi rst offshore
wind solicitation project
last year, entered into an
agreement with British Petroleum
in September that allowed
BP to buy 50 percent of
non-operated interests in the
assets of its two wind farms.
Equinor’s South Brooklyn
Marine Terminal site is facing
off against 10 other ports
for the state funding — including
a 35-acre location in the
Brooklyn Navy Yard and two
sites in Staten Island. But Sunset
Park environmentalists
say that the South Brooklyn
Marine Terminal is particularly
deserving of the bid.
“It is an environmental justice
community with three
peaker plants, the Gowanus Expressway,
two solid waste management
plants, and a community
that is at risk of extreme
and recurrent weather events,”
said Elizabeth Yeampierre, the
director of the environmentalist
group UPROSE. “In an industrial
area, we need to be
building for climate adaptation,
mitigation, and resilience.”
The funding would add to
the $57 million that Mayor Bill
de Blasio promised the terminal
in his State of the City address
earlier this year. The
city funds would go to offshore
wind staging, installation,
and maintenance efforts.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams speaks at a press conference about
the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. Photo by Rose Adams
The terminal, which is
the largest industrial waterfront
in the city, is the only
site under consideration that
wouldn’t require extensive
reconstruction in order to accommodate
the large vessels
and huge assembly area of a
wind turbine assembly plant,
according to UPROSE.
The state aims to develop
9,000 megawatts of offshore
wind energy in the next 15
years, which is enough to
power about 6 million homes,
in order to reach its goals.
At an Oct. 28 press conference
outside of the port on 39th
Street and First Avenue, activists
and local offi cials urged
the state to award the funds
to the South Brooklyn Marine
Terminal.
“This project that was put
out by NYSERDA is exactly
what this area was designed
for,” said Public Advocate Jumaane
Williams. “We have
the ability to be equitable and
make sure that our environment
is healthy. What better
marriage could you look for?”
GAINING STEAM
Environmentalists call for investment in
Sunset Park offshore wind energy hub
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