The federal government has removed two contested offshore wind-energy areas off the Hamptons from its upcoming lease sale of waters off Long Island’s South Shore, citing conflicts with commercial fishing, shipping and lack of commercial viability. Credit: Newsday / Reece T. Williams
[Updated to correct story link below]
By Mark Harrington, Newsday
The federal government’s decision to nix two wind-energy areas off the Hamptons from an upcoming offshore lease auction removes the second biggest wind-energy area in the region while putting a greater onus on projects that would be located just 23 miles from New Jersey.
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in an unexpected decision Wednesday, announced that two wind-farm areas known as Fairways North and Fairways South would not be offered in the round of auctions that could take place by year’s end.
By eliminating Fairways North in particular, the federal government took off the table the potential for 1,071 megawatts of capacity from the total 9,800 megawatts BOEM expects from the waters between New York and New Jersey known as the New York Bight. Fairways North, at 88,246 acres, would have been the second-largest of five major sites originally planned for those waters, just 15 miles from shore.
Each megawatt of offshore wind can power roughly 350 homes, so removing Fairways North from the list removes the potential for powering some 374,975 homes with green energy.
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