Wind Energy Forum Saturday
Renewable Energy Long Island, a nonprofit organization that advocates a transition from fossil fuels, will host a forum on wind energy on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at the East Hampton Middle School.
The forum is intended to introduce the town’s residents to offshore wind energy, cover topics concerning environmental protection, and answer questions.
Gordian Raacke, Renewable Energy Long Island’s executive director, will be a featured speaker at the forum along with John Sousa-Botos of the town’s Natural Resources Department and Clint Plummer, the vice president of development for Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company that has proposed a wind farm approximately 30 miles off Montauk. Mr. Plummer will present the latest information on his company’s proposal, Mr. Raacke said on Monday.
Deepwater Wind’s proposal includes 15 offshore wind turbines and battery energy storage facilities in Montauk and Wainscott. The project, if approved, could generate 90 megawatts of electricity upon completion. The company is at present constructing the country’s first offshore wind farm, a 30-megawatt, five-turbine installation that is expected to supply most of Block Island’s electricity needs.
The project was among the proposals received last year by PSEG Long Island, which manages the Island’s electrical grid on behalf of the Long Island Power Authority. The utility’s request sought an additional 63 megawatts of electricity to be installed between 2017 and 2019 to meet demand on the South Fork that has far outpaced the rest of Long Island, with particularly high usage in the summer and on weekends and holidays.
In December 2014, LIPA rejected a previous proposal by Deepwater Wind, but Mr. Raacke said that he is cautiously optimistic about the company’s latest pitch. “They were debriefed, called in afterward,” he said, “where LIPA folks told them why they did not select the project. Based on that, they redesigned it to meet whatever objections they must have had.”
The proposal was designed to meet the South Fork’s peak energy demand, he said, and not that of the entire Island as in the previous proposal. He called the proposal’s battery-storage element “a clear indication that it was designed to alleviate the problems PSEG is worried about on the South Fork in terms of peak demand.”
PSEG and LIPA are reviewing the proposals, with LIPA scheduled to announce a decision in May. Mr. Raacke said he would attend LIPA’s board of trustees meeting in Uniondale on Monday, “to let the board know what we want.” While Deepwater Wind’s proposal for the South Fork would not be completed before 2022, “It’s not a shot in the dark anymore,” Mr. Raacke said.