The Deepwater Wind Energy Center project, with up to 200 wind turbines, replaces a 350-megawatt, 100-turbine proposal that was put forward by Providence, R.I., wind power developer Deepwater Wind two years ago.

Under the new plan announced this week, Deepwater would also build an undersea transmission network that would stretch from Massachusetts to New York and connect to multiple states to which the company could sell its power.

Deepwater's decision to expand the size of its proposal was driven in part by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's Nov. 23 announcement that the federal government would expedite permitting for qualifying wind energy projects on the East Coast, company executives said, The Providence (R.I.) Journal newspaper reports.

"The Deepwater Wind Energy Center is a major leap forward for the offshore wind industry," said Deepwater Wind Chief Executive Officer William M. Moore in a news release. "DWEC will be the first regional offshore wind energy center in the United States, with a wind farm and a transmission system serving multiple markets. The industry is maturing and becoming a major force in reshaping our national energy future for the better and DWEC will lead this effort."

The wind turbines would rise about 525 feet above the water, each separated by about three-quarters of a mile with the project covering 270 square miles in total. Deepwater said the turbines would be far enough at sea -- about 20-25 miles -- so they would be barely visible from land. Each machine would generate 5 or 6 megawatts of power.

The project is more than twice the size of Nantucket Sound's Cape Wind project, which is set to become the first U.S. offshore wind farm.

Construction is to start in 2014, with the first wind turbines in operation by the end of 2015, Deepwater said.

Moore said the $4 billion to $5 billion project had enough financing to bring it through the planning phase but that new investors would be needed before construction could begin. The 150-mile transmission line would cost another $500 million to $1 billion, he said, The New York Times reports.

Deepwater Wind said this week that it has filed an unsolicited nomination to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement to lease the ocean site where it plans to locate the wind farm.

In a study released in September on the potential for Atlantic wind, Washington conservation advocacy group Oceana said that offshore wind could generate 30 percent more electricity on the East Coast than could be generated by the region's untapped oil and natural gas reserves.

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