Cuomo Calls for Wind Power
The winds of change blew stronger on Tuesday when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the goal of 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind power to be harvested annually by 2030, enough to power 1.25 million residences. He pointedly added, in a State of the State address at Farmingdale State College, one of six scheduled this week, that “we are not going to stop until we reach 100-percent renewable, because that’s what a sustainable New York is really all about.”
The governor called on the Long Island Power Authority to approve a 90-megawatt offshore wind farm to be situated 30 miles off Montauk proposed by Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company. LIPA’s board of directors is expected to vote on the proposal on Friday, Jan. 20. The utility’s chief executive officer had previously indicated his support for offshore wind.
The governor’s remarks came one day after his announcement that the Indian Point nuclear power plant, in Buchanan, N.Y., is scheduled to close by April 2021.
The proposed wind farm’s 15 turbines, which could power 50,000 residences, would not be visible from the land, the governor said. “Not even Superman standing on Montauk Point could see these wind farms,” he said. “But the upside is tremendous. It will be the largest offshore wind project in our nation’s history, not just in existence. It’s jobs. It’s clean energy and it’s inexpensive energy, which then drives the economy. And we are not going to stop there.”
The latter comment was a reference to the state’s Clean Energy Standard, a directive announced in August that requires 50 percent of electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030, and his further pledge on Tuesday to achieve 100 percent of the state’s electricity needs from renewable sources.
The goals announced by the governor mirror those made by the East Hampton Town Board in 2014, when it voted to meet its electricity needs through renewable sources by 2020, and to meet the equivalent of all energy consumption, including heating and transportation, with renewable sources by 2030.
“I’m pleased by the governor’s support for Deepwater Wind’s proposal to provide energy to the South Fork,” Supervisor Larry Cantwell said yesterday, “and his commitment to renewable energy statewide. I think the town and state are aligned on this issue.” Mr. Cantwell said town and state officials have encouraged one another to move toward renewable energy sources in recent years “because we think it’s important to the environment, especially in a coastal area like ours.”
The supervisor conceded that the town could miss its goals by “a year or two. . . . We’ve got a long way to go with moving the rest of our energy consumption to renewables, when it comes to fuel, vehicles, and heating,” he said. The town is exploring adding more solar panels and energy-efficient lighting to municipal buildings, and electric vehicles to its fleet. The goal to meet all energy consumption with renewables by 2030 is “attainable within a reasonable period,” he said, but “we have a lot of work to do, and we have to be persistent in our day-to-day decision making.”
Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, which is based in East Hampton, said in a statement yesterday that Governor Cuomo’s commitment to offshore wind “could make Long Island a regional hub for offshore wind development, creating jobs and attracting significant industry investments, while allowing the state to reach its renewable energy mandate.”
“It is really exciting to see that Governor Cuomo has now committed to shift to 100-percent renewable energy sources as our town did in 2014,” Mr. Raacke said. “East Hampton was the first town in the State of New York to set such a bold goal, and the idea seems to be contagious.”