Contested Astoria Power Plant Could Be Sold To Wind Energy Company

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The owner of a fossil-fuel-powered Astoria energy plant wants to sell the facility to an offshore wind developer, following months of controversy over the future of the site.

NRG Energy filed forms with the state on Thursday seeking regulators' approval to sell its peaker plant north of 20th Avenue to Beacon Wind Land LLC, the developer of a huge wind energy project being built in the Atlantic Ocean about 60 miles east of Montauk.

The potential sale, first reported by POLITICO, comes after the state last October rejected NRG's proposal to replace its aging 50-year-old turbine with a natural gas-fired generator.

Advocates and elected officials had long argued that the plant should instead be replaced with a renewable energy source — a demand that the sale would apparently meet.

NRG has always planned to retire its plant by May 2023 to comply with state energy laws. Now, under the proposed sale, NRG would continue leasing the plant for six months after its closure to help decommission and demolish it, before ceding all control to Beacon Wind Land on Oct. 31, 2023.

Beacon said it would use the Astoria site as an interconnection between its offshore wind projects and the city's Con Edison grid.

NRG has owned the Astoria plant since 1999, when it purchased it from Con Edison, according to the company's website.

Some of those who had opposed NRG's prior plan for the Astoria site celebrated news of the potential sale.

"This multi-year long campaign was seen through by an array of ecosocialist organizers," the Queens chapter of the Democratic Socialists in America said in a tweet. "Canvasses, marches, education sessions, & more our neighborhood grew this greener future."

A broad neighborhood chorus had opposed NRG's natural gas proposal, including U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and eight other New York City members of Congress; Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani; and former City Councilmember Costa Constantinides, who said elevated asthma rates associated with peaker plants "devastate" Black and brown communities.

"Thru this victory, we have laid the foundation for a renewable investment that will benefit our neighbors, our state, and the environment as a whole," Mamdani tweeted Friday.

Related coverage:

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• Astoria Peaker Plant 'Should Not Go Forward,' Says Mayor