Wind is a free, clean source of energy. Right now, the U.S. produces about 50,000MW (enough for 12.8 million homes) from on-land wind turbines (See AWEA.org), but the number of offshore wind farms stands at zero. A conference held 7/31/12 at the Long Island Association, Melville, NY aims to change that. Sponsored by Renewable Energy Long Island, Citizen’s Campaign for the Environment, Alliance for Clean Energy NY, National Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club, the conference invited key leaders: Peter Grannis, First Deputy Comptroller,  NY State Comptroller’s office, and Kevin Law, Long Island Association, talked about jobs and economic benefits that offshore wind could bring; Karsten Moeller from Siemens Energy discussed the numerous successful projects in Europe, stating that wind turbines are now big enough to produce 6mw each and can be placed further offshore to minimize view impacts. (Most people I’ve met who’ve seen wind turbines think they’re beautiful, BTW…)

Bill Moore, Deepwater Wind, discussed a proposed wind farm between Rhode Island and Long Island. Representatives from NYSERDA, the NY Department of State, and the utility companies LIPA and NYPA contributed status updates on an existing proposal off the Rockaways, for which NYPA has submitted a lease application to the federal government. LIPA has found the area off the south shore of Long Island to be highly suitable for wind power production, and NY State is doing “competitive use” studies right now to determine which areas are best, given shipping lanes, fishing uses, etc.

The main point of the conference was to point out that while no energy source is perfect, offshore wind holds the potential to be a clean energy source with very few negative effects, especially when compared to the use of fossil fuel-burning power plants, so it would be a welcome addition to New York’s energy mix.