Two US offshore wind developers are seeking to challenge a plan by New York Power Authority (NYPA) to develop up to 700MW of offshore wind capacity in waters off New York state.
Fishermen's Energy and Energy Management Inc (EMI) - the developer behind Cape Wind- have indicated their competing interests in a site that NYPA and its partners have long had their eye on.
CapeWind has proposed a 600MW project within the same area, about 20km south of Long Beach, New York, while details of the project proposed by Fishermen's Energy have not been disclosed.
NYPA, Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) and energy utility Con Edison announced plans for Long Island New York City Offshore (LI-NYC), a 350MW project with potential expansion to 700MW, as long ago as 2008. The partners filed an unsolicited request for a commercial lease with the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in 2011 and early this year BOEM issued a formal request to determine competitive interest.
BOEM will now review the submissions from Fishermen's and EMI. If it finds one or both companies legally, financially and technically qualified it will begin a competitive leasing process. The agency has also closed a round of public consultation about the LI-NYC wind farm, which generated thirty comments.
Interestingly, another US offshore wind developer, Deepwater Wind, supports the NYPA-led project. It argues in a letter to BOEM that the "model proposed by NYPA – a single entity awarding both site control and a revenue contract – can align the interests of the project’s critical stakeholders and expedite the successful development of offshore wind".
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