Lackawanna, New York is the site of an old Bethlehem Steel which has been converted recently into a wind farm which produces enough electricity to power 7,000 homes. In the summer of 2010 Paul Curran oversaw the creation of what he described as “the first large-scale wind project inside an American city.” Mr. Curran is the managing director of BQ Energy which, together with UPC Wind of Newton Massachusetts, placed eight wind turbines on the old steel mill site, whose blades actually reach higher than the Statue of Liberty.
Mr. Curran, age 50, chose the site in Lackawanna, a suburb south of Buffalo for several reasons. For one, he received tax credits for converting a brownfield site; also, there were already roads there, and the old steel mill was already hooked up to the electricity grid, which saved Curran the trouble of installing new power lines. The site also abuts and active port on Lake Erie, allowing easy access to equipment requiring delivery via barge.