By Frank Dalene
In 2014, my hometown of East Hampton, New York, voted to adopt a remarkable goal: committing to 100 percent renewable energy.
The defining proposal, called the Comprehensive Energy Vision, was put forward by the Town of East Hampton Energy Sustainability Committee, under my leadership as chair. In the proposal, we called for the Town of East Hampton to “become a leader in sustainable energy policies and practices by substantially reducing energy consumption through conservation and energy efficiency while significantly increasing the use of renewable energy technologies. The vision is for an economically efficient and environmentally sustainable comprehensive municipal energy policy,” which would see “significant energy cost savings for residents and local businesses, in addition to environmental and public health benefits. These town-wide benefits keep more money in the local economy and help create local jobs.”
This was approved by the Town Board, under a GOP administration, in October of 2013. Several months later, in May of 2014, we led a Democrat administration to unanimously adopt a community wide goal to reach 100 percent renewable energy for electricity, transportation, and heating fuels by 2030.
Establishing goals for renewable energy is the lowest hanging fruit in sustainable energy practices since the technologies have advanced sufficiently to be efficient and cost effective. By establishing these goals, East Hampton could once more become a national leader environmentally, this time on a new frontier: in the sustainability and resilience front.
At the time we established this goal in East Hampton, some other towns and municipalities in California had set similar goals—but we were the first town on the East Coast to make such a commitment. Soon after we made this goal for East Hampton, Southampton followed with their own goal of 100 percent renewable electricity. From there, the ripple effect continued to grow. Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York at the time, and his brother would come and summer in the Hamptons. When he saw East Hampton and Southampton make these goals, he decided the entire state should do the same, and set about creating a renewable energy goal for the whole state: 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030, and an emissions-free electric sector by 2040.
The goals set by East Hampton and Southampton have spurred multiple green infrastructure projects. Deepwater Wind secured offshore wind farm leases from the federal government 30 miles southeast of Montauk Point. Deepwater Wind’s electric production projections were used to justify the goal for 100 percent renewable energy for electricity. Deepwater Wind made the decision to land the submarine cable from the offshore wind farm to Wainscott, a hamlet in East Hampton, to help East Hampton attain its goal. The East Hampton Town Board, the Energy Sustainability Committee, other environmental groups and local citizens supported Deepwater Wind through its rigorous approval process from 26 Local, State and Federal Agencies before construction started. Deepwater Wind later sold their leases to Ørsted, the largest energy company in Denmark, and one of the largest installers of offshore wind farms in the world. We now have one of the largest offshore wind projects in the U.S., and one of the largest concentrations of offshore wind farms, all off the coast of Long Island.
Our plan largely relied on projections of the electricity that would be produced by the proposed Ørsted offshore wind project, called South Fork Wind. Now, Ørsted has just released the South Fork Wind Report documenting that performance matched projections in its first full year of operation. The wind farm “is delivering efficient, reliable electricity to 70,000 New York homes,” the report states. “South Fork Wind is now providing consistent, affordable electricity to Long Island, with performance data showing it matches the reliability of many baseload generators.”
Since the wind farm began commercial operations in July 2024, it has achieved 46.4 percent net capacity factor over its first year, meaning it has generated 46.4 precent of its maximum possible electricity output. This metric rose to 53 percent over the fist half of 2025—making it as efficient as New York’s most efficient natural gas plants, which operate at 53.7 percent net capacity. And, despite naturally varying wind speeds, the wind farm “produced electricity more than 92% of the time during the first half of 2025, supported by reliable operational uptime of the wind turbines themselves.”
Moreover, “South Fork’s performance is also translating to real value for New York ratepayers. At a cost of about $1.58 per month for the typical residential customer, South Fork is adding needed capacity to a grid-constrained area, helping to keep down electric bills while ensuring consistent power.” In fact, the report cite a study by Aurora Energy Research estimating that if South Fork and two other offshore wind projects had been operational in 2022, they could have saved New Yorkers a whopping $77 million during a single cold, high-cost month.
This report is a confirmation of all the hard work the Town of East Hampton Energy Sustainability Advisory Committee, the East Hampton Town Board and local citizens did to make this project a reality. And it demonstrates the kind of chain reaction a grassroots movement like the one we began in East Hampton can have when it comes to investing in renewable energy infrastructure. A town or municipality sees what a neighboring town or municipality is doing and says, “We want to do that too.” It spreads and spreads until you have multiple municipalities throughout the state making these goals, which then puts pressure on the state government to make statewide goals. When states start making these goals, it puts pressure on the federal government to make national goals as well. This is the kind of positive chain reaction grassroots movements can create.
This project happened not due to partisan political pressure or mandates, but because of a community coming together and making it happen.
Frank Dalene, an Amazon Best Selling Author in Green Business & Environmental Economics titled, Decarbonize The World: Solving The Climate Crisis While Increasing Profits In Your Business, and Founder of the Hamptons Green Alliance, a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. Learn more at frankdalene.com and hamptonsgreenalliance.org.