New York awards offshore wind contracts to Equinor, Orsted

New York on Thursday awarded two major offshore wind contracts to Norway’s Equinor and a joint venture between Denmark’s Orsted and U.S. utility Eversource, a key milestone in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ambitious plan to slash the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The two contracts add up to 1700 MW of capacity, or enough to power 1 million homes, Cuomo said at a press conference in New York City. Four major developers had submitted proposals to the state, which plans to procure 9,000 MW of offshore wind energy by 2035.