Dive Brief:
- Deepwater Wind has proposed a 90 MW wind farm 30 miles from the shore of New York’s Long Island, Reuters reports.
- Construction on the wind farm, which would be the largest in the country, could start as by 2019 with the project in operation by 2022.
- Deepwater is negotiating the offtake agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), which is expected to vote in favor of the project by the end of July, according the Associated Press.
Dive Insight:
Offshore wind power has had a hard time getting started in the United States. The Cape Wind project in Massachusetts’ Nantucket Sound has battled local opposition for over a decade. So far, there is only one offshore wind project under construction in the U.S., Deepwater’s 30-MW Block Island project in Rhode Island due online later this year.
The Deepwater ONE South Fork project off of Montauk, N.Y., would be sited in the in the same federally approved waters as the Rhode Island wind farm, which could expedite approvals.
"Our project is not just the best site for offshore wind in the country, it’s also the right solution to meet the South Fork’s energy demands in a clean and cost effective way,” Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski said in a statement.
Last month the Department of the Interior announced plans for a lease sale of 81,130 acres 11 miles off the Long Island shore that is eligible for wind farm development.
