U.S. Offshore Wind Score: 3 Hits, 0 Runs

http://www.renewableaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=49308

In the first part of this series we compared the progress made in the permitting and construction of near-offshore wind farms in Northern Europe with the progress made in the U.S. in the years since Cape Wind was initially proposed. The score, you might remember, is 13 completed, 11 under construction or contract 'over there', against zero over here. Some of our players on the Atlantic seaboard, however, are at least making an attempt to hit a single or two, even without management (i.e., Administration) support.

Delaware

Faced with a 59% increase in residential electricity rates last year, the State of Delaware set a renewable portfolio standard mandating that 10% of its power come from renewable sources by 2018. Obligated by the state to find new power sources, the local utility evaluated proposals for natural gas plants, coal gasification plants, and a 200-turbine offshore wind farm.

At a Public Service Commission public hearing on the issue, every resident who spoke supported the proposed wind farm over the fossil fuel alternatives, and on May 27th this year the utility was ordered to negotiate a long-term power purchase agreement with the wind farm developer.

]New York

Further up the coast and four miles off Jones Beach, Long Island, is the site of another proposed wind farm, the Long Island Power Authority's (LIPA) 40-turbine facility, capable of generating 140MW or enough for about 44,000 homes. While the LIPA project is at approximately the same point in the permitting process as Cape Wind, it has the advantage of a 20-year power purchase contract already in place between LIPA and the developer.

Rhode Island

In April, Governor Carcieri announced a plan whose ultimate goal is to generate 15% of Rhode Island's electricity, or 150 MW, from wind by the year 2012. He released a study that identified ten shallow-water sites in Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds, out of shipping channels but mostly within state waters, where wind farms would be economically feasible.

<more>

is being proposed off of Orient Point but, as with other projects, far too many are complaining that their views of the horizen will be obstructed. I seem to remember that great liberal Ted Kennedy bitching about the view from his place in the Vineyard. So much for progress fronm progressives when it inconveniences them and their neighbors.

I've even heard people who don't live anywhere near there complaining that if they might want to head that way they wouldn't want to see a windmill on the water. And they sympathize with those poor people who spent an extra half million or so for waterfront homes.

They talk of dangers to birds, boats, fish, and anything else that might make them not look so self-serving and piggish.