There are many climate commentators who find the very concept of the modern city unsustainable. But if mayor Michael Bloomberg, ConEdison and the Long Island Power Authority have anything to say about it, New York City—one of the world’s largest— may be well on its way to disproving that assertion. 

We’re not just talking about Christmas trees, here: a 300-megawatt wind farm is now in the works, planned for 10 miles southeast of the city.  Similar projects have failed, but with most of New York’s population on the pro-renewable side of the culture war, and with similar large farms popping up everywhere from Texas to Massachusetts, the $1.5-billion-dollar price tag tentatively attached to the project may have less dissuasive power.

I hope that this project will succeed, setting a precedent for large renewable installations closer to urban centers where demand for power is the highest.  Transporting power to urban areas from renewable installations, which tend to be in rural areas where land is cheap, is becoming an increasingly contentious issue, both technologically and in terms of conservation.