By Joe Ryan

(Bloomberg) — New York State is mounting a broad effort to cut back the price of constructing a wind farm off the coast of Long Island, an formidable push to generate clear energy in U.S. waters.

The state’s Energy Research and Development Authority plans to bid for a federal lease to develop a 81,000-acre (127-square-mile) website within the Atlantic Ocean. If it wins, New York would undertake preliminary website research and pursue an settlement to promote the electrical energy. The state would then maintain an public sale of its personal, promoting growth rights to the best bidder.

New York officers see offshore wind as crucial for assembly the state’s aim to get half its energy from renewable sources by 2030. By doing the preliminary planning and guaranteeing a purchaser for the facility, the state intends to make the mission interesting to builders, driving down prices and making it extra possible the wind farm might be constructed.

“This is a resource that has to be, and will be, developed,” John B. Rhodes, president and chief government of the New York State authority, stated in an interview Friday. “It is our job to do it as surefootedly and cost efficiently as possible.”

Lower Risk

Offshore wind is among the many most costly sources of energy on the earth. While it has thrived in Europe, the know-how has languished within the U.S. as utilities balked on the worth. If New York succeeds in lining up a purchaser, the state would take away a lot of the chance for builders, and finally make the facility cheaper for customers, stated Willett Kempton, a professor on the University of Delaware who research offshore wind.

“This is New York telling the country that offshore wind is going to happen, ” Kempton stated in an interview. “No other state has done this before.”

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to public sale off the lease for the location by the tip of the 12 months. The space, about 11 miles (18 kilometers) south of the town of Long Beach, is giant sufficient to accommodate generators able to producing 900 megawatts, rivaling a nuclear energy plant.

The first wind farm in U.S. waters, a 30-megawatt mission off Rhode Island, is being constructed by Deepwater Wind LLC and scheduled to be operational by the tip of the 12 months.

© 2016 Bloomberg L.P