New York could soon boast nation’s largest offshore wind energy project

The project will produce energy for approximately 50,000 homes in the Hamptons

An off shore wind farm
An off shore wind farm

New York’s Long Island Power Authority is expected to approve a proposed 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm east of Montauk next week. The project would be the nation’s largest offshore wind energy farm at roughly three times the size of a similar farm coming to Block Island, Rhode Island.

“This is the first in New York, it’s the largest to date, but we’re looking at this and seeing a tremendous offshore wind resource that will be developed and it’s not the last,” Long Island Power Authority CEO Thomas Falcone told The Associated Press. “I think this is a very big step … for New York, but also for the United States.”

Negotiations between the LIPA and contractor Deepwater Wind, which will handle the project, are ongoing so exact costs remain unclear. The project could be up and running as soon as 2022.

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The turbines will be placed 30 miles offshore, over the horizon. The project will produce energy for approximately 50,000 homes in the Hamptons.

“Not only will the project reduce air pollution emissions on Long Island, but it’ll also defer the need to build costly new power plants and transmission systems on the South Fork,” Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski said in an announcement last year. [NYP]Christopher Cameron