How many homes will Empire Wind power in New York
Empire Wind is an offshore wind farm, turbines built in the ocean that turn wind into electricity, located 15 to 30 miles southeast of Long Island. New York State estimates the finished project will power 388,000 homes. The 54 turbines, a Vestas V236 model, are rated at 15 megawatts each, stretch 774 feet across the rotor and stand 886 feet tall at the blade tip, adding up to 810 megawatts of total capacity. The power will run to the Con Edison electric grid in Brooklyn.
New York authorized construction, then a federal stop work order nearly halted it
Governor Kathy Hochul announced final approval for Empire Wind in May 2024, authorizing construction to start.
It is critical that construction begin in early May for the developer to keep the construction schedule on track and achieve the anticipated commercial operation date.
Rory M. Christian, chair, New York Public Service Commission. Source 4.
The United States Department of the Interior ordered a stop to construction on December 22, 2025, citing national security. A federal court, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, granted Equinor a preliminary injunction on January 15, 2026, a court order that let construction resume while the underlying legal case continues. By the time of that ruling, more than 60% of Empire Wind was already built. Equinor expects the project to reach commercial operation, the point where it starts selling electricity, in 2027.
What Empire Wind costs, and how it is financed
Equinor has owned Empire Wind outright since April 2024, after bp exited a 2020 agreement to help develop the project. Equinor secured more than 3 billion dollars in debt financing for Empire Wind in December 2024. That financing figure is different from the total capital investment, which Equinor puts at approximately 5 billion dollars once expected tax credits are included, a distinction the company draws in the same release that announced the financing. The remaining approximately 2 billion dollars, a MAOWCE calculation subtracting the debt figure from the total, is the equity Equinor put into the project. Under the sale agreement, the project will sell its electricity at 155 dollars per megawatt hour for 25 years.
The equity figure is a MAOWCE calculation subtracting the debt financing Equinor states from the total capital investment Equinor states, not a number Equinor states directly.
Show the numbers
| Debt financing | 3 |
| Equinor equity | 2 |
| Total capital investment | 5 |
The people building Empire Wind, and how many hours they have logged
More than 4,500 people worked on building the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and its onshore substation, including more than 3,000 union trades workers, according to Empire Wind own project page. That is a different count from the more than 1,000 union jobs Equinor cites for construction across the whole project, since the marine terminal figure covers only the Brooklyn shoreside work, not the offshore turbines.
Out of all four projects, the building trades, with only 12 turbines operational, have generated more than 3 million man hours.
Matty Aracich, president, Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Source 5.
Across the 4 Long Island offshore wind projects combined, including Empire Wind, workers have logged more than 3,000,000 hours, a total the building trades council projects will exceed 9,000,000 hours once all 4 projects are finished.
The projected figure covers all 4 Long Island offshore wind projects once complete, only 12 turbines were operating when the total already reached 3,000,000 hours.
Show the numbers
| Hours worked so far | 3 |
| Hours projected at completion | 9 |