A quick update to plans TreeHugger first wrote about back in September: Plans to develop an offshore wind farm near Long Island seem to have expanded a bit. The Long Island Power Authority and Con Edison have announced that they will be jointly studying the feasibility of developing up to 700 MW of wind power at a location "at least 13 miles off the Rockaway Peninsula"


To develop such a farm, however, would require a $415 million upgrade to the electric transmission system, in addition to the costs of the wind farm itself. That would handle the proposed initial 350 MW of the project. The full capacity of the wind farm examined in the draft project assessment would be developed at a later date.

Operating with a load factor of 30% the initial phase of the project would generate about 920,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year. A figure LIPA says is enough to power 250,000 homes.

Via Tree Hugger