Clean Energy Company Eyes South Brooklyn Marine Terminal For Possible Wind Farm

An offshore wind farm project that would generate clean energy and power for New York City might be in the works and project managers are considering the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal on the Sunset Park waterfront as a potential “staging ground,” according to a report in Crain’s.

The proposed plan is in the early stages, with negotiations with the city Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), which owns the site, reportedly still going on. The interested party is called Deepwater Wind LLC (they are also looking off Rockaways for another project) and the company apparently seeks to take advantage of a growing interest in environmentally-friendly, sustainable, and renewable methods of electricity/energy generation.

“We’ve got one of the best sources of offshore wind in the county, right off Long Island,” Dan Sherrell of the Sierra Club [told Crain’s]. “It’s literally the Saudi Arabia of wind.”

Offshore wind in the U.S. has long been stymied by high costs. That’s starting to change, and Deepwater began construction in July on a 30-megawatt wind farm in Rhode Island waters, the first in the country. It’s also announced plans for projects near Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and along the New Jersey shore. The Providence, Rhode Island-based company declined to comment on the Brooklyn proposal.

. . . Deepwater has approached two local companies to explore possible partnerships in connection to the project, the person said—Red Hook Container Terminal, a freight-transport facility north of the marine terminal, and Industry City, a nearby manufacturing complex being redeveloped as a center for artists, tech startups and manufacture

Deepwater’s interest is just one of many proposals for the industrial maritime facility, which already is home to the relatively new SIMS Municipal Recycling Facility.