The possibility of a major manufacturing plant coming to Cortlandt had been flying below the radar due in large measure to a nondisclosure agreement required by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
Those competing for $220 million in funding from the state agency to build and deploy equipment for offshore wind farms were prevented from publicly discussing the project, according to one of them, AKRF Inc.
AKRF is a New York City-based consulting firm that has offices in White Plains and Stamford among other cities. The firm has about 350 planners, engineers and scientists on staff who work on energy, transportation, real estate and other projects.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has committed to having New York develop offshore wind farms capable of generating 9,000 megawatts of electricity by 2035. One megawatt is enough electricity to light 10,000 100-watt light bulbs. NYSERDA is looking for contractors interested in undertaking the project and, as part of that effort, will be selecting land where the blades, turbines and other components that go into wind farms will be manufactured. It expects the fabrication facilities to be operational by 2024.
Artist rendering of the proposed manufacturing site in Verplanck along the Hudson River.
New York state in July announced its second offshore wind solicitation, which would be for up to 2,500 megawatts of power. It previously had selected a joint venture known as Bay State Wind to develop two separate offshore wind-powered electric generation sites capable of producing nearly 1,700 megawatts of power.
AKRF has developed a plan that would place a manufacturing plant for the wind farm components on a 54-acre site owned by the town of Cortlandt in Verplanck. Michael P. Lee, AKRF”™s president, told the Business Journal, “The NDA did hamper everything that we could say. Now that we”™re sort of publicly listed the town board has been getting more information and we”™re having community sessions, whatever is needed, to get the word out there.”
NYSERDA wants proposals submitted in October and AKRF expects that the agency would be announcing its selection of a site in December.
The proposed waterfront manufacturing site would provide access to the Hudson River. After components are fabricated at the approximately 5-acre plant, they would be loaded onto barges and then floated down the Hudson to reach a staging facility or taken directly to an offshore wind farm site for installation.
The Cortlandt site is one of 11 seeking to be selected by NYSERDA. AKRF said that, in addition to the town”™s 54 acres, 126 acres of adjacent properties could eventually be developed for expanded manufacturing.
“With respect to the design and concepts, it”™s been over a year effort on our part,” Lee said. “We”™ve been doing intense designs and layouts, consultation with industry about the site.”
He said that the wind farms off the Atlantic coast of Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey will consist of towers with turbine generators at the top that are about 850 feet tall, turned by blades that are about 350 feet long.
He said that the center portion of the generating device sitting on top of a tower weighs about 500 tons.
“Given the 25-year timeline and life cycle of these turbines, we see this facility, if it gets in in the beginning and becomes a hub, as being a fantastic manufacturing base for as long as I can envision,” Lee said.
“This is a huge market that is happening off the Northeast coast and then industry all the time has to retool. The size of the facility and potential adjacent uses can give industry not only a very long home but also the ability to expand and create additional jobs as the demand increases.”
Lee said the fabrication facility probably would be leased to one of the three major manufacturers that are leaders in the wind turbine field and the operators of the wind farms would subcontract work to that manufacturer. MHI Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and GE Renewable Energy are the major turbine manufacturers.
“We”™ve been working with an entity called Port Cortlandt Development, which is really a group of firms and investors that are looking to attract the industry to the site,” Lee said.
Wind energy developers who are expected to be operating the offshore site, include Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners/Avangrid, EDF/Shell, EDPR/Shell, Equinor, Bay State Wind and Orsted.
“This is clean technology. They”™re not the type of noxious or other activities that wouldn”™t be able to go in this community,” Lee said. “We know people are concerned about noise and traffic and lighting and visuals. We have crafted it to minimize impact on the communities.”
He said that similar facilities they have seen in Europe have about 300 employees and the plans AKRF have developed so far include about 300 parking spaces and that if Port Cortland were to have multiple fabrication contracts the number of jobs created could be in the area of 1,000.
Lee said they hope the project would offset the tax losses affecting local communities as a result of the Indian Point nuclear power plant closing.
“We”™ve laid out that if we can continue to incrementally expand jobs and other things the goal would be to not only offset them but to have additional economic benefits associated with these jobs,” Lee said.
