New York offshore wind farm project moves one step closer
(17 September 2011)

Even as opposition to the Cape Wind offshore project ratchets up, the Long Island-New York City Offshore Wind Collaborative is moving forward with plans to build a wind farm which would supply power to the Big Apple.

An offshore wind farm proposed off the coast of New York City took one more step towards realization on Thursday as the companies behind the project applied for permission to build the wind farm in federal waters.

The Long Island-New York City Offshore Wind Collaborative, comprising New York power company Consolidated Edison (Con Edison), and the state-owned power authorities of Long Island and New York (LIPA and NYPA) filed a lease application for the 350MW project with the offshore regulator, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE).

If successful, the project could see 97 turbines built 13-17 miles off the Rockaway Peninsula and Long Island, with an initial capacity of 350MW. The partners could eventually expand the project to 194 turbines with a capacity of 700MW, NYPA said.

Selling politically an offshore wind farm is tough at a time when natural gas prices (and thus power prices) are depressed by low demand and the shale gas bubble.

The long island one might stand a better chance (as prices there are permanently higher thanks to that built but never commissioned nuclear plant...)

Wind power