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Profile
New York power
Produced 24.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity in 2024 — enough electricity for about 2,500 homes for a year.*
Air quality & health in Queens County
Queens County has a population of 2,252,196. Across five conditions the American Lung Association tracks — childhood asthma, adult asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease — it reports a combined 467,489 cases in the county.
No ozone grade is available for the county in the most recent report. For particle pollution — the fine soot and dust that can be breathed deep into the lungs — it received a grade of F.
Federal monitoring recorded 209 days of good air quality and 102 moderate days in the county over the most recent year, with 5 days rated unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Long-term exposure to air pollution has been linked to certain health conditions, particularly for children and older adults. Where electricity comes from affects how much combustion pollution is produced on the grid.
These figures describe the county as a whole and are not specific to this facility. Sources: American Lung Association – State of the Air (New York); U.S. EPA Air Quality Index.
The story behind this New York power plant
New York has 46 oil-fired power plants in this category, and Jamaica Bay Peaking in Far Rockaway ranks #3 of 46 by 2024 electricity produced. It began operating in 2003 and has one generator with a capacity of 60.5 MW. A megawatt (MW) is a measure of how much power a plant can deliver at a given moment.
In 2024 it produced 24.5 gigawatt-hours, which is about 2,500 homes’ worth of electricity. A gigawatt-hour is a large unit of energy, equal to a billion watts running for an hour. Its technology is listed as petroleum liquids, meaning an engine or turbine that runs on liquid fuel, here a mix of kerosene and natural gas. A “peaking” plant is one that runs mainly when demand is highest.
Generation profile
The plant can produce 60 megawatts of electricity at once, across 1 generating unit. In 2024 it produced 24.5 gigawatt-hours in total, which works out to about 5% of what it could have produced running flat out all year — the pattern of a plant that runs only during periods of high demand.
Nearby places worth exploring
Far Rockaway sits on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, along the Atlantic shoreline and Jamaica Bay. Nearby you’ll find Rockaway Beach, a well-known stretch of city shoreline, and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a popular spot for birdwatching. Just across the border in Nassau County are the Five Towns.
Local school district
New York City Department Of Education
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* Homes-powered and emissions comparisons are annual estimates based on national averages from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. “Homes powered” describes a quantity of electricity, not direct service to specific households. How we calculate this.
