Visitors to Smith Point Park are seeing a buzz of activity as work on the Sunrise Wind cables continues. Because of limitations on the bridge connecting the park to the mainland, a steady flow of barge traffic is ferrying equipment and supplies from Shirley Beach to a temporary pier on Fire Island. As the ships pass through, gates go down, and vehicles have to stop for the opening of the draw bridge that’s been carrying William Floyd Parkway over to the park since 1959.
It’s all part of a massive project to energize Long Island’s electric grid with power from 86 turbines to be built 123 miles away off Montauk Point, enough to serve 600,000 homes. Each Sunrise Wind turbine will stand more than three times taller than the Statue of Liberty. Crews have already buried conduits under the Fire Island dunes to accommodate the cables coming in from the ocean. It’s the largest wind project in the nation and part of a plan to take New York entirely off fossil fuels over the next 15 years.
Conduits have already been installed along the parkway to connect the offshore generators to the grid through a switching station in Holtsville, 17 miles from Smith Point. Under construction by the Danish company Ørsted, the project promises to pump $700 million into the economy. The total cost of the green energy effort that the ratepayers will bear has not been released.