Five formal proposals to build wind turbines in the New York waters of Lake Ontario or Lake Erie have been submitted to the New York Power Authority.
Authority officials released the number this morning in Buffalo but declined to say anything else about the proposals.
The state-chartered authority, which operates enormous hydroelectric generating plants on the Niagara and St. Lawrence rivers, has been promoting the construction of one or more wind farms in the lakes with a total generating capacity of up to 500 megawatts — roughly the capacity of the Ginna nuclear power plant in Wayne County.
The authority has laid out five general areas it believes suitable for turbines located two miles or more offshore — the eastern ends of Ontario and Erie, and the waters of Lake Ontario off parts of Monroe, Wayne and Niagara counties.
Offshore farms, common in northern Europe but nonexistent in North America, are intended to take advantage of the stronger, more consistent winds found over large bodies of water. Numerous wind farms have been proposed for the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean coastline, but none of them are close to construction.
The Power Authority’s offshore wind idea has been greeted very coolly in communities east of Rochester, and more warmly in those to the west. Officials in Monroe County have been publicly neutral.
Proposals from wind-farm developers were due to the authority Tuesday. At a news conference in Buffalo this morning, authority president Richard Kessel said the proposals would be reviewed and one or more developers chosen by late this year or early in 2011. He said he hoped turbines could be in service by 2015.
Officials said he was barred by state procurement law from discussing details of the proposals during the initial review phase.
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