New Jersey may add "mini" windmills to Turnpike

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New Jersey could erect "mini" windmills along the state's Turnpike as a way to generate electricity and cut pollution as part of a plan to create a new agency to raise funds to improve roads and bridges, a state lawmaker said on Monday

Senator Raymond Lesniak said mini windmills, each only a few feet high, could be placed on rooftops or atop bridges or towers.

"Depending on the wind at that location, they can generate a few megawatts to a hundred megawatts," Lesniak said by telephone.

The Democrat, who represents Union, said he got the idea after bicycling in France, where giant windmills are common.

"While the huge windmills could not be used because of the objections of sight lines on roads and bird migration, there are mini windmills that will do the job," he said.

Gov. Jon Corzine on Tuesday is expected to finally unveil details about his plans to generate revenue from the Turnpike by creating a new public benefit corporation that would increase tolls and sell tax-free debt. The cash raised would be used to pay off some of the state's outstanding bonds and modernize transportation.

A spokesman for the Democrat's Treasurer was not immediately available to comment.

Mini windmills could make the Turnpike much greener if they produced enough electricity to power state-owned lights and buildings along the highway and run idled refrigerated trucks, which now must burn diesel fuel for long hours as they wait to be unloaded at Port Elizabeth, for example, Lesniak said.

The mini windmills also might avoid the problems that have blocked other states from forging ahead with much taller models.

Though many states around the nation are studying or installing windmills, environmentalists have sued to block them because these power-generators can kill migrating birds by the thousands, including bald eagles.

Homeowners, eager to protect their oceanfront views, also have filed lawsuits.

"This is a concept that is not limited to toll roads, but that's where we're going to start at this time," Lesniak said, pledging to include the provision in the bill he will sponsor to put Corzine's Turnpike plan in place.

(Reporting by Joan Gralla; editing by Leslie Adler)