Mayor Michael Bloomberg has offered up an ambitious plan for wind power development in and around New York City. A story in the New York Times today reports on the mayor speaking at a clean energy conference in Las Vegas yesterday.

“Mr. Bloomberg said he would ask private companies and investors to study how windmills can be built across the city, with the aim of weaning it off the nation’s overtaxed power grid, which has produced several crippling blackouts in New York over the last decade.”

Rooftop wind installations are on the rise across the country but in some cases they don’t really pay off in the area of carbon reductions. And although a variety of designs for rooftop wind turbines exist, standard commercial wind turbines are still the most proven and efficient wind generation technology.

In addition to efficiency issues there are plenty of potential pitfalls ahead in the quest to bring commercial grade wind power to New York City. Safety will be one concern. If the city attempts to maximize their output by using a standard commercial turbine they will have to consider the potential impact of ice throw during the winter months. The visual footprint of proposed turbines is likely to attract great scrutiny as well.

Mayor Bloomberg also mentioned offshore wind planning in addition to urban installations. There’s no doubt that the potential is there to generate large amounts of clean electricity not too far from the coast of southeastern New York. The process to site such wind will likely be onerous (see Cape Wind) as questions about economics, impact to ocean based industries and environmental concerns are explored.