This will be huge, particularly if the cross-harbor rail tunnel ever gets built. I would only hope that they consider the ridiculous expansion that looks to arrive there in that case. Wind farms powering high-efficiency rail is a nice model for cargo transport, especially in this area. Oh hi, actual job production.

Additionally, wind farms in "non-scenic" and otherwise unused bodies of water (e.g. western Lower Bay, western Raritan Bay, and some Newark Bay) would probably go up with less public outcry (?), if not other hitches. Are there SRECs or similar programs for wind? The PANYNJ could make a killing.

The revitalization of Greenville Yards and Port Jersey could be a huge boon, has a lot of potential, and I for one like this project a lot. Let's just hope it doesn't become, well, another Greenville Yards.

Wind farm could site on Hudson County shoreline
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Last updated: Sunday May 16, 2010, 10:19 AM
BY TOM DAVIS The Record STAFF WRITER

Five 300-foot-tall windmills could soon anchor the Hudson County skyline and provide clean energy to a portion of the Port of New York and New Jersey and some local neighborhoods.

The Port Authority wants to build wind-powered turbines that will provide a combined 7.5 megawatts of electricity to support an expanded marine terminal on the Jersey City and Bayonne border.

The turbines will also provide surplus electricity that could power hundreds of homes and help the state meet its goal of supplying 200 megawatts of wind energy by 2020, Port Authority officials said Friday.

The Port Authority wants bids from companies that could join a public-private partnership to help fund, build, operate and maintain the turbines by 2014. The deadline for proposals is June 11.

The windmills will help reduce carbon emissions in an area that is plagued by industrial and truck pollution, said Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of the Port Authority.

"This allows us to harness one of our great natural resources, which is wind," he said. "We're going back to the technology that our friends in the Netherlands have been using for centuries."

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, applauded the Port Authority for the plan to erect the windmills, but said the agency still needs to reduce pollution produced by its bridges and airports.

"I hope it's a start and not just a show," Tittel said. "This is like trying to clean up the oil spill in the gulf with an eyedropper."

Baroni said the agency wants to use the "oldest form of technology" to power the Port Jersey peninsula, which currently handles 323,000 containers annually.

The Port Authority wants to expand the port by rehabilitating an inactive terminal that shipped domestic and imported cars until 2008. The newly rehabilitated facility will handle containers carrying various types of cargo, Baroni said.

The Port Authority is currently converting the land into the marine terminal "so this is the perfect time to plant these" windmills, Baroni said.

Baroni said the location also makes sense because the coastal areas generate the most wind in New Jersey.

"We're prepared to harness this energy using cutting-edge technology," he said.

While they're unsure of the project's cost, Port Authority officials said the turbines will serve as a catalyst for eventually converting all the agency's energy resources to wind power.

The Port Authority also recently set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent ? from 2006 levels ? at all agency facilities by 2050.

The agency will receive a $3.6 million grant from the state Office of Clean Energy to help fund the project, Baroni said.

"They [the windmills] will generate a significant amount of power," Baroni said. "They will self-power the marine terminal and put additional power back to the public grid."

Doyal Siddell, a spokesman for the state Office of Clean Energy, said the windmill project has a great deal of potential and could reduce carbon emissions by 10,000 metric tons a year.

"This is emissions-free electricity," Siddell said.

Land-based wind turbines have been providing electricity everywhere from Atlantic City to West Texas in recent years. But even though the wind is strongest at sea, offshore wind farms have never been built in the U.S.