Environmentalists rally for offshore wind farm

Environmentalists rallied Tuesday in front of the Uniondale headquarters for the Long Island Power Authority to voice their support for an offshore wind farm off Long Island's East End. They are urging

News 12 Staff

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Dec 21, 2016, 4:11 AM

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Updated 2,922 days ago

Environmentalists rallied Tuesday in front of the Uniondale headquarters for the Long Island Power Authority to voice their support for an offshore wind farm off Long Island's East End.

They are urging LIPA to move forward with plans for Deepwater One, which would bring a 15-turbine wind farm 30 miles off Montauk. It is expected to bring 90 megawatts of clean power to the South Fork.

Deepwater One would be the nation's second offshore wind farm. A five-turbine wind farm is already operational off Block Island.

LIPA's CEO Tom Falcone would only say that talks are ongoing.

"While we aren't bringing a contract at [Tuesday's] board meeting, we continue to negotiate with the developer and have made substantial progress over the last several months," said Falcone.

Representatives for Deepwater Wind seemed confident in a deal Tuesday. In a statement to News 12 Long Island, they said, "We expect to finalize a power-purchase agreement early in the New Year."

However, commercial fishermen say the location of the South Fork wind farm would severely impact the fishing industry on Long Island and kill of generations off fish.

Depending on construction schedules, Deepwater says the wind farm could be operational as early as 2022.