Empire Wind brings clean energy clinics to Oceanside

Empire Wind 2, a joint offshore wind venture between Equinor and bp, partnered recently with the National Supplier Diversity Institute and This is Long Island to bring Sports Power Clean Energy Clinics, an innovative youth development program that combines the excitement of sports with the importance of clean energy education, to about 200 youths on Long Island.

Clinics were recently held in Oceanside, Long Beach Brentwood, and Wyandanch. The clinics included a wide range of sports activities for children in Grades 3-9, as well as learning about offshore wind and clean energy. Clean energy programming focused on home energy efficiency, electric vehicles, and offshore wind, while sports programming focused on basketball, soccer, volleyball, go-kart racing, tennis, e-sports, karate, speed strengthening, and stamina combines.

“Empire Wind is excited to have brought this program to Brentwood, Wyandanch, Long Beach, and Oceanside and looks forward to continuing to work with other Long Island communities to educate future generations about offshore wind,” said Scott Lundin, Vice President of Permitting and Community Affairs for Equinor Renewables.

Empire Wind 2 will invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the Long Island economy throughout the life of the project, including social investments such as these Sports Power Clean Energy clinics, as well as community host agreements, property taxes, and easement payments.

The project will deliver power directly to Long Island through an interconnection to the New York grid in Oceanside. Along with the Empire Wind 1 and Beacon Wind projects, which are also being developed by Equinor and bp, these three offshore wind projects will power 2 million New York homes with renewable energy, accounting for a third of New York State’s offshore wind goals. When finished, these projects are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are equivalent to removing 1.3 million cars from the road annually.