December 14, 2007
New York

Progress made toward Galloo Island wind farm

Upstate NY Power Corp. has been testing the winds on Galloo Island. But that’s not the only progress toward a wind farm on the property.

The wind-monitoring towers, or anemometers, have been collecting data for more than a month. At the Hounsfield Town Council meeting Wednesday night, Supervisor Jean H. Derouin said that the company’s engineers have been visiting the site frequently.

“They’re very excited about it,” he said. “They figure that it’s the perfect place.”

He also told the audience that the town Planning Board has received the site plans from the company. As the first step to the state environmental quality review, the Planning Board sent out letters to all the involved agencies that the Planning Board, not the Town Council, will be the lead agency.

The Planning Board is waiting for recognition of that status from the other agencies before it proceeds with the SEQR process.

Both the company’s and the town’s attorneys will be present each month at the Planning Board meetings to update the members on the project’s progress.

In the site plans submitted to the Planning Board, the company proposed about 77 turbines, one for every 30 acres. It also would construct buildings for maintenance and living quarters, above-ground storage tanks, a substation and a helicopter pad.

Only about 4 percent of the 1,934-acre island in Lake Ontario would be developed. The rest would be a “de facto nature preserve,” according to the plans.

The electricity would travel via undersea cable to the mainland in the town of Henderson. While most wind farms cannot be placed farther than 5 miles from a bulk transmission line, the high level of power production expected on Galloo Island would offset the inefficiencies of the longer run.

By Nancy Madsen

Watertown Daily Times

14 December 2007


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/12/14/progress-made-toward-galloo-island-wind-farm/