Wind farm initiative launched.

In mid-November, 11 municipalities from Westchester County in New York banded together to announce the 'Adopt-a-Wind Farm" campaign--an effort to expand support for wind energy in New York State.

The campaign seeks to sign up enough demand to justify the construction of a new wind farm, at least 15 Megawatts (MW) in capacity, or the equivalent of 10 wind turbines.

The 11 Westchester municipalities that currently purchase wind power are the village of Croton-on-Hudson, town of New Castle, town of North Castle, town of North Salem, town of Pound Ridge, town of Bedford, village of Ardsley, town of Yorktown, town of Lewisboro, village of Briarcliff Manor and the village of Tarrytown. But, together they only purchase a little more than 2 MWs of wind energy.

To achieve the 15 MWs needed to establish a wind farm, wind energy supplier Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) joined the public officials and four environmental groups (who are also wind energy customers) to encourage the use of clean, emission-free wind power. CEI will track the wind purchase commitments throughout Westchester County, and plans to announce the results in the near future. "Customers who sign up for NewWind Energy[R] make a real difference," said Ron Kamen, CEI's New York State director. "The more customers who buy wind energy, the more wind farms we bring online." Kamen noted that New York State currently has 48 MWs of wind power, but that New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) studies have found that New York wind energy can supply 10,000 MWs of power, or 20 percent of the state's electrical needs.

For more information on wind energy, contact Mayor Bob Elliott of the village of Croton-on-Hudson at [phone].