New York City leaders broke ground Monday on a new wind turbine factory in Brooklyn that will become the largest of its kind in the U.S. once it’s completed.
The Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal project, located on the Sunset Park waterfront, will be a partnership between the city’s Economic Development Corporation and Equinor, a Norwegian energy company that primarily works in the emissions-causing fossil fuel sector. The construction, expected to complete in late 2026, will establish a staging, repair, and maintenance hub for the 54 wind turbines that will make up Empire Wind 1, an offshore green energy farm off the south shore of Long Island.
“What does it mean? Four words, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs,” Mayor Eric Adams said at the groundbreaking. “Not only the turbines and the jobs that come from that, from manufacturing the turbines, but also imagine people stopping at the local bodegas, the local restaurants.”
During a press conference at the factory location, Mayor Adams, accompanied by state, city, and congressional lawmakers, actively promoted the largest wind turbine factory project in the U.S. as a boon not just to renewable energy production but also to the local economy.
“We are powering up New York’s clean energy economy and creating more than 1,000 union jobs for working-class New Yorkers as we break ground on the largest dedicated offshore wind port in the nation,” Adams said before he and other politicians on hand grabbed shovels and threw dirt in the air to mark the official beginning of construction on the 73-acre facility.
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The Largest Wind Turbine Factory in the U.S. Comes with a Cost
The wind farm will also result in lawmakers acknowledging a slight energy cost spike for New Yorkers.
“It will initially increase energy costs by a few pennies, but the increase will not be significant,” said Manhattan Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat who represents the area. “However, the importance of this project as the first one that will actually bring energy to the New York City grid is that like with all new technologies, we learn a lot from it, we learn from the process and invariably the process becomes cheaper.”
The largest wind turbine factory in the U.S. will accelerate the clean energy transition, advance progress toward developing 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035 as per the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) goal, and create more than 1,000 construction jobs.
“We are taking a large step forward in our commitment to build a sustainable future and foster economic growth,” Governor Hochul said. “With the groundbreaking of South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which is set to be largest wind turbine factory in the U.S.; is fueling the redevelopment of the Brooklyn waterfront, bringing important investments to our communities, creating good-paying jobs, and building the model for the offshore wind industry that the rest of the nation can follow.”
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New York City Mayor Adams said, “Today, we are powering up New York’s clean energy economy and creating more than 1,000 union jobs for working-class New Yorkers as we break ground on the nation’s largest dedicated offshore wind port at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. In addition to creating jobs and economic growth, this offshore wind project will significantly reduce our carbon footprint and ensure our city meets our climate goals of 100-percent clean electricity by 2040 and carbon neutrality by 2050. Together with our recent acquisition of the Brooklyn Marine Terminal in nearby Red Hook, we are reimagining Brooklyn’s working waterfront for the 21st century, powered by the green economy and our ‘Green Economy Action Plan’ that will help create jobs and opportunity for generations to come.”
NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, “Today marks another monumental step in New York State’s transition away from fossil fuels through its commitment to delivering clean offshore wind power. The modernization and expansion of the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which will become the largest wind turbine factory in the U.S., is a gamechanger for the offshore wind industry, not only in New York, but in the U.S. I congratulate Equinor and SBMT as this facility is now officially on its way to becoming the nation’s largest dedicated offshore wind port.”
