State utility regulators today OK’d the installation of a giant new power plant in Queens.
NRG Energy Inc. will build the generator on the site of its existing plant, which is within the 600-acre Con Ed property on the northern edge of Astoria.
NRG will shut down its existing generators on the site, which were installed in 1969 and put out 600 megawatts of power.
In their place, the company will install a new generator capable of churning out 1,040 megawatts.
The extra power will be enough for 320,000 new homes, NRG says.
Although the new $1.4 billion plant will be much bigger, every year it will put out just 12 percent of the pollution of the existing plant, NRG says.
The first phase of the new plant will come on line in 2013, and the entire project will be finished by 2015.
The project is expected to create 700 construction jobs, the state Public Service Commission said.
Con Ed and other retail utility companies buy electricity from companies like NRG and resell it to consumers.