Letters

All people of the East End should become knowledgeable about why the Deepwater Wind South Fork ocean wind farm will cause financial harm. I support the production of clean energy, but the DWSF rates will be at least double the cost of other companies building at the same time, and their 90-megawatt output only produces about 6 percent of the output of two other new Long Island ocean wind farms.

LIPA’s purchases of electricity are charged to all 1.1 million Long Island consumers. If every other town accepted that all electricity from every supplier would cost as much as DWSF claims it will cost, the total price increase to the average purchaser in all Long Island towns would be at least $75 each month, or $900 per year. My financial mathematics tells me that it would be higher.

A LIPA “Fact Sheet” states that about both the 90-MW price and 40-MW “escalate at an average of 2 percent per year for 20 years.” That is strongly wrong from a basic finance analysis. The first four upticks of the price are at 5 percent each. The first increase can come in after one month if they start, as they want to, in December 2022. After as little as three years and one month, the price to everyone will have increased 25.2 percent to over 20 cents per kilowatt. Then it goes up for five years at 3 percent per year to a price that is 40.9 percent higher than the one-month starter of 16 cents per KW.

These increases will make the Long Island consumers pay over $200 million more than if DWSF started at 16 cents per KW and increased it at 2 percent each year.

DWSF’s size was not supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in a 2018 publication. Wind farms of about 800 MW were supported, and 400 MW was said to be the lowest that made sense to build. These two projects that the state has approved will begin at about 8 cents per KW. NYSERDA had a page on how two 100-MW proposed projects were not financially acceptable.

The Town Board and the Trustees of East Hampton should not harm the entire 1.1 million payers of Long Island by approving the installation of the Deepwater Wind South Fork. I hope the town boards of other towns realize the financial harm DWSF will bring their residents, and bring their opposition of DWSF to East Hampton and New York State.

Zachary Cohen

Springs