Equinor and bp have announced an agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to terminate the Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate (OREC) Agreement for the Empire Wind 2 project, an offshore wind project in the US with a total capacity of 1,260 MW.
This announcement comes as the global offshore wind industry has been struggling owing to inflation, interest rates and supply chain disruptions. These factors have changed economic circumstances and commercial viability of the project according to the companies, and thus, they have taken this decision to terminate the agreement.
Empire Wind is being developed through a 50-50 joint venture between Equinor and bp and is located 15-30 miles southeast of Long Island The lease for the project was acquired in 2017 and it has two phases which together have a potential capacity of more than 2 GW.
REGlobal’s Views: The global offshore wind industry is making signficant headwinds with rising equipment costs and supply chain issues. Prior to the cancellation of Equinor-bp Empire Wind 2 project, another major energy giant Orsted had cancelled its two large offshore wind projects off New Jersey – Ocean Wind I and II. These latest developments do not bode well for the US offshore wind industry, which is planning 30 GW of capacity additions in this segment by 2030.
