Wind Turbines Slated for New York

by | Aug 17, 2010

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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes to have five wind towers, each more than 280 feet tall, operating on the west side of New York Harbor within three years, while the Department of Veterans Affairs considers wind turbines on or near its hospitals in Manhattan and Brooklyn, reports The New York Times.

The five turbines are expected to produce as much as 7.5 megawatts, which the authority plans to use to operate the container port, then feed the surplus energy into the local power grid, offsetting some of the authority’s consumption elsewhere, according to the article.

In 2008, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed to install wind turbines on top of the city’s skyscrapers and bridges, as well as off the coastline of Queens and Brooklyn to help reduce the city’s dependence on power plants that run on fossil fuels.

Currently there are no large-scale projects underway and only a few small turbines on the roof of an apartment building in the Bronx and a wind-powered electronic billboard for Coca-Cola in Times Square, reports The New York Times.

However, the city’s Economic Development Corporation is evaluating the feasibility of putting turbines atop buildings, including a warehouse at the Hunts Point Cooperative Market in the Bronx.

There is also an ambitious project underway in partnership with utility companies and the New York Power Authority to build a wind farm on about 65,000 acres of the Atlantic floor, which will generate as much as 700 megawatts of power by 2016, according to the article.

Nearby in the city of Bayonne, N.J., an equally large turbine as the ones at the port authority will be installed to power a sewage-pumping station.

Touted as the first windmill in New York Harbor, construction of a 262-foot-tall turbine has already started at a plant operated by the city’s Municipal Utilities Authority. The $5.6-million tower, which would be the biggest wind turbine in New Jersey outside of Atlantic City, will generate more electricity than it needs to power the plant by September.

 Stephen J. Gallo, executive director of the utilities authority told The New York Times the city plans to sell the excess power, saving at least $150,000 a year.

Both projects in Bayonne will help New Jersey achieve its goal of developing 200 megawatts of wind energy onshore by 2020, according to the article. The state’s energy plan also calls for 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy offshore within 10 years.

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