Project would build offshore wind farms

Such a project could create jobs in a state that desperately needs them, said Richard Kessel, president of the power authority. Kessel spoke to more than 150 businesspeople at Monroe Community College, where the authority held a business-to-business conference titled "Get Listed."

The purpose was to educate subcontractors who could help the eventual developer build as many as 200 wind turbines in Lake Erie or Lake Ontario. The offshore wind farm was proposed by NYPA in 2009, and proposals from developers are due June 1.

NYPA officials said it's possible that a developer could be chosen by the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2011. It was disclosed at the conference that at least six bidders from across the globe have expressed interest in developing the offshore wind facility.

Kessel said the authority will give preference to developers who promise to use local labor and local manufacturing sites. To help with the process, NYPA is holding the Get Listed conferences. A February meeting in Buffalo drew 200 business representatives.

Kessel said there is plenty of potential work, as tall wind turbines can have as many as 8,000 parts. That possibility attracted Timothy Ehmann and Mike Nowicki, officials with O'Connell Electric Co. in Victor, who said they have the experience of working on a majority of New York's existing land-based wind farms.

"We'd like to align ourselves with a developer," said Nowicki, O'Connell's business development manager. "We're looking to put our (employees) to work."

NYPA officials said the proposed offshore project could create as many as 800 manufacturing and installation jobs over two years, and lead to as many as 80 permanent jobs. The establishment of North America's first offshore wind farm could also work as a magnet, as other states begin to build such projects using western New York materials and experience.

The wind farm proposal has created a stir in communities along the Erie and Ontario shorelines — except in the Rochester area, where it's been largely a nonissue. But the MCC event still drew some skeptics, some of whom made their way north from Steuben County.

James Hall of Cohocton, of Citizen Power Alliance, said the wind turbines produce only a fraction of their capacity. "If you don't have the wind, you shouldn't do it, especially with public monies," said Hall.

Kessel, who has seen some county legislatures express skepticism and even adopt resolutions against having the project in nearby waters, said counties that don't want a wind farm won't have to worry about it.

The wind project won't go near their county, but legislators will have to explain why the job creation also left with the wind turbines, he said.