NY Power Authority proposes billion-dollar wind farm
The wind farm proposed by the state Power Authority would have at least six times the generating capacity of the Steel Winds project, above, in Lackawanna.
Derek Gee / Buffalo News file photo - Updated: 04/22/09 12:12 PM
Power Authority proposes billion-dollar wind farm
By James Heaney -News Staff Reporter
The state Power Authority announced an initiative today that could lead to the construction of a billion-dollar wind farm off the Lake Erie or Ontario shoreline.
The project would involve building a wind farm and also seeding a local industry to manufacture and assemble wind turbines, authority officials say.
“The potential for wind (power) in the Great Lakes is extraordinary,” said Richard Kessel, president and chief executive officer of the New York Power Authority.
Kessel said he has met with numerous wind farm developers, who he said have expressed “a great deal of interest.”
As a first step in developing a wind farm, the authority today issued a request for an expression of interest from developers. That will likely be followed with a formal request for proposals later this year.
The authority envisions a wind farm with a minimum capacity of 120 megawatts — about six times the capacity of the Steel Winds project on the site of the former Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna. A 120-megawatt project would involve about 40 wind turbines, which probably would be located miles from the shoreline.
Kessel said the project would cost $700 million to $1 billion and would be in operation in about five years.
To facilitate the project, the authority would sign a power purchase agreement for 20 years, thus providing a developer a guaranteed revenue stream that would allow it to obtain financing for the project. Authority officials said they are open to other options, including a joint venture that could draw on its considerable bonding capacity and cash reserves.
The authority would require the developer to manufacture and assemble the turbines locally, drawing on the region’s industrial capacity. Authority officials said the region has the potential to develop into an assembly hub that could service the growing wind market in the Northeast, Midwest and Ontario.
“The project could make Western New York a center for wind turbine manufacturing,” Kessel said.
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