The United States has its first large offshore wind farm, with more to come

JENNIFER McDERMOTT

America's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is officially open, a long-awaited moment that helps pave the way for a succession of large wind farms.

Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility Eversource built a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul went to Long Island Thursday to announce that the turbines are delivering clean power to the local electric grid, flipping a massive light switch to “turn on the future.” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was also on hand.

Achieving commercial scale is a turning point for the industry, but what's next? Experts say the nation needs a major buildout of this type of clean electricity to address climate change.

Offshore wind is central to both national and state plans to transition to a carbon-free electricity system. The Biden administration has approved six commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects, and auctioned lease areas for offshore wind for the first time off the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts. New York picked two more projects last month to power more than 1 million homes.

This is just the beginning, Hochul said. She said the completion of South Fork shows that New York will aggressively pursue climate change solutions to save future generations from a world that otherwise could be dangerous. South Fork can generate 132 megawatts of offshore wind energy to power more than 70,000 homes.

“It’s great to be first, we want to make sure we’re not the last. That’s why we’re showing other states how it can be done, why we're moving forward, on to other projects,” Hochul told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview before the announcement.

“This is the date and the time that people will look back in the history of our nation and say, ‘This is when it changed,’” Hochul added.

South Fork will generate more than four times the power of a five-turbine pilot project developed earlier off the coast of Rhode Island, and unlike that subsidized test project, was developed after Orsted and Eversource were chosen in a competitive bidding process to supply power to Long Island. The Long Island Power Authority first approved this project in 2017. The blades for the 12 Siemens Gamesa turbines reach speeds of more than 200 miles per hour (350 kilometers per hour).

Ørsted CEO Mads Nipper called the opening a major milestone that proves large offshore wind farms can be built, both in the United States and in other countries with little or no offshore wind energy currently.

With South Fork finished, Ørsted and Eversource are turning their attention to the work they will do offshore beginning this spring for a wind farm more than five times its size. Revolution Wind will be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes next year. The site where the cable will connect in Rhode Island is already under construction.

In New York, the state said last month it would negotiate a contract with Ørsted and Eversource for an even larger wind farm, Sunrise Wind, to power 600,000 homes. The Norwegian company Equinor was picked for its Empire Wind 1 project to power more than 500,000 New York homes. Both aim to start providing power in 2026.

After years of planning and development, 2024 is a year of action— building projects that will deliver sizeable amounts of clean power to the grid, said David Hardy, group executive vice president and CEO Americas at Ørsted.

Ørsted, formerly DONG Energy, for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, started aggressively building wind farms off the coast of Denmark, the U.K. and Germany in 2008. The company sold off the North Sea oil and gas assets on which it had built its identity to focus on clean energy, becoming Ørsted. It’s now one of the biggest wind power developers.

The first U.S. offshore wind farm was supposed to be a project off the coast of Massachusetts known as Cape Wind. A Massachusetts developer proposed the project in 2001. It failed after years of local opposition and litigation.

Turbines began spinning off Rhode Island’s Block Island as a pilot project in 2016. But with just five of them, it’s not a commercial-scale wind farm.

Last year brought challenges for the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, as Ørsted and other developers canceled projects in the Northeast that they said were no longer financially feasible. High inflation, supply chain disruptions and the rising cost of capital and building materials were making projects more expensive as developers were trying to get the first large U.S. offshore wind farms opened.

Industry leaders expect 2024 to be a better year, as interest rates come down and states ask for more offshore wind to meet their climate goals.

The nation's second large offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind, is expected to open later this year off the coast of Massachusetts, too. The first five turbines are providing power for about 30,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts. When all 62 turbines are spinning, they'll generate enough electricity for 400,000 homes and businesses. Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners are the joint owners of that project.

The Biden administration wants enough offshore wind energy to power 10 million homes by 2030. Interior Secretary Haaland said that "America’s clean energy transition is not a dream for a distant future— it's happening right here and right now.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Stamford gets $17M for 3,000 foot greenway along Mill River to connect West Side to train station

Ignacio Laguarda

STAMFORD — A project to connect the city's West Side to the Stamford train station through a pedestrian corridor just got a $17 million federal boost.

 The plan, known as the "West Side Neighborhood Connector Project," would create a 12-foot-wide path to fill a 3,000-foot missing gap in the city's Mill River Greenway network, among other improvements.

According to a news release from the office of U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the project would "connect residents of the West Side neighborhood past I-95 to the Metro-North Railroad Line, and the South State Street area to Downtown Stamford and the South End neighborhoods."

The project funding was announced this week, along with another $4.8 million in federal dollars for transportation projects in Norwalk, Bridgeport, Hartford, Naugatuck and Western Connecticut.  

“This unprecedented investment will make Connecticut’s roadways safer for all and reconnect communities that have long been disconnected and divided by highways," Blumenthal said in the release.

According to an online fact sheet from the Reconnecting Communities & Neighborhoods grant program, the connector project in Stamford would create a direct connection from the Mill River Greenway to the Stamford Transportation Center, "which will bring West Side residents safely to the transit station with limited interaction with vehicles."

The money will build out a portion of the Mill River Greenway between Tresser Boulevard and just south of the Metro-North rail tracks. The 12-foot path will come with new lighting and other amenities. The project also includes upgraded sidewalks, raised crosswalks, bump outs, traffic signal improvements and wayfinding signage to help residents cross Tresser Boulevard, Greenwich Avenue and Richmond Hill Avenue. 

The description on the website states that the investment "will allow area residents to safely cross several 'burdening' facilities and improve access to employment centers, education, transit, parks and other community destinations."

“The way that many Connecticut cities are designed has cut neighborhoods off from each other," said U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., in the release. "This almost $22 million will support projects across the state to improve road safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, make public transit more accessible to everyone and reconnect neighborhoods."

Gov. Ned Lamont said the federal funding would help increase safety and mobility throughout the state.

"Much of our state’s infrastructure was designed and built for cars and cut off communities from one another," he said. "By refocusing on pedestrians and bicyclists, the state can have roadways that work for everyone."

U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., also touted the benefits of the transportation projects.

“I am thrilled to see federal funds help connect our communities and make our thoroughfares safer and more accessible so that commuters can get to work, children to school and families to visit relatives a town over with ease and peace of mind," he said. "As an avid biker myself, I understand the importance of dedicated infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists so that every member of our community can easily traverse our cities and enjoy Southwest Connecticut’s vibrant natural spaces and bustling commercial areas."

Demolition underway at former Subway HQ in Milford: 'Sad and exciting in the same breath'

Nick Sambides

MILFORD — Excavators made methodical work knocking down the former Subway headquarters on Thursday, a job expected to take about three weeks. The company moved to nearby Shelton last October. 

 J.P. Shimko, general manager at the Milford Ice Arena next door, felt a certain wistfulness watching the building get slowly picked apart. The rink used to have so-called "Subway Skates," with up to 20 workers skating around the rink at lunchtime. Often Subway employee's children took skating or hockey lessons or played in rink leagues, Shimko said, with the company's presence itself a comforting reminder of the financial security and neighborliness the customers represented.

"It's sad and exciting in the same breath," he said. "It's sad to see a neighbor go, but stuff like (the company skates) we would like to bring back." Shimko said. 

But with demolition ongoing, the question now becomes what will replace Subway at the property. Owner Bob Scinto declined to say, but did tease an upcoming announcement.

"It's a great, great great company," Scinto said. "It is going to add a lot of status to Milford."

Online auto parts supplier FCP Euro had been slated to move onto the grounds at 325 Sub Way. But the company is considering relocating to another town because city regulations prohibit oil-storage tanks at its new location, CEO Scott Drozd has said.

FCP is still working with Scinto and scouting properties, Drozd said in a text earlier this week. He did not immediately respond to messages left Thursday.

The reshaping of the Subway campus was planned to start now whether FCP moved in or not, city officials said.

As of Thursday, about 10 percent of the main building was down and a maintenance building was gone, said Andy Howard, a project manager from  Scinto's construction company, which began the site work on March 9.

The work was going well, said Howard. Like Shimko, he said he was hopeful about the change.

"I can see why some people don't like us coming in here," Howard said, "But the building is about 50 years old. It needs replacement or a lot of renovation."

New $90 million north end school gets approval, and sidewalks, in Cheshire

Austin Mirmina

CHESHIRE — Officials said they will install paths to protect students walking to the new elementary school that will be built in the town's north end later this year.

Plans for the north end school, which has not yet been officially named, got the go-ahead from local zoning officials this week, marking another step forward for the $90 million project. It will be built on 42 acres at the corner of Jarvis Street and Marion Road, replacing Chapman Elementary and Darcey School.

"We're obviously very pleased," Richard Gusenburg, chair of the Next Generation School Building Committee, said of the Cheshire Planning and Zoning Commission granting the necessary permits for the project at its March 11 meeting. "It's an important step to getting these buildings built." 

Some PZC members had raised concerns over the lack of sidewalks included in the north end school's original plans, saying their omission would endanger students forced to walk to the building on a busy street.

In response, project officials added sidewalks connecting the school to the surrounding community, Gusenburg said. As part of the project's approval, officials also agreed that the school district would bus those students who live nearby if sidewalks were not installed, the chair said.

"There's a couple of subdivisions in that area," Gusenburg said. "Where we can run a sidewalk, we will if it's on our property. If it's not on our property, we've urged the town to extend some of their sidewalks."

Meanwhile, the new, roughly $77 million Norton School, which will replace the existing school of the same name at 414 North Brooksvale Road, still needs to be approved by the Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands and Watercourses commissions. But Gusenburg said Wednesday he expected those approvals to come soon.

The two school projects still are on track to begin construction in December, officials said. The bidding process for both will occur in the fall, according to Gusenburg. 

"We are excited that the Planning and Zoning Commission has approved our plans for the new North End School," Jeff Solan, superintendent of Cheshire Public Schools, said in a statement Wednesday. "The approval is another significant step in bringing contemporary educational facilities to our students and community."

Gusenburg and other school officials presented plans for the revamped Norton School during a public hearing at Monday night's PZC meeting. The hearing was continued to March 25, giving project officials time to address further questions from the board.

The new schools, which are expected to open in 2026, are part of a modernization effort that officials said will address soaring enrollment, improve accessibility and enhance building security, among other benefits. Redistricting will be completed in 2025 to determine who will attend the new schools, according to the projects' website.

Once built, the new Norton School will have a “Woods and Trails” theme, while the north end facility will have a “Farm and Field” theme, aligning with its rural setting, designs show.

Both schools will be powered by a hybrid geothermal system — a combination of geothermal wells and pipes — supplemented with rooftop air handling units for heating and cooling. The plans were a compromise from previous concepts that called for more costly geothermal systems at both buildings.