What's holding up offshore wind energy
in the US?
From: Dave Levitan, Yale
Environment 360 in ENN.com
In June, after years of offshore wind power projects being thwarted in the United States, the first offshore wind turbine began spinning off the U.S. coast.
The turbine was not a multi-megawatt, 400-foot behemoth off of Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New Jersey, or Texas — all places where projects had long been
proposed.
Rather, the turbine was installed in Castine Harbor, Maine, rising
only 60 feet in the air and featuring a 20-kilowatt capacity — enough to power
only a few homes.
Meanwhile, Europe has left the U.S. far behind, installing
its first offshore turbine in 1991 and growing rapidly in the past decade. To
date, the countries of the European Union have built 1,939 offshore turbines
with 6,040 megawatts of capacity.
Is the U.S. offshore wind industry finally about to get off the ground? Offshore wind carries impressive electricity-generating potential, and several projects seem poised to get underway.
But energy analysts say the industry
still faces daunting hurdles, most notably the higher cost of building offshore
wind farms, the expense of connecting them to the onshore grid, and the lack of
the comprehensive government incentives and renewable energy targets that have
been crucial in fostering the growth of Europe’s offshore wind energy sector.
On the positive side,
the infamous Cape Wind project, mired in legal battles for more than a decade, hopes
to start construction next year. With plans to construct 130 turbines in the
shoals between Nantucket and Cape Cod, The Interior Department has completed
the first of two auctions for large offshore parcels for wind development.
Cape
Wind has faced enormous legal struggles because of opposition from local
residents concerned that the turbines would mar the region's beauty and harm
seabird populations. But its legal battles are now largely behind it, and Cape
Wind has power-purchase agreements in place.
The wind farm's developer, Jim Gordon, says the project will eventually be capable of supplying about 75 percent of the electricity needs of Cape Cod, which has a year-round population of 215,000.
The wind farm's developer, Jim Gordon, says the project will eventually be capable of supplying about 75 percent of the electricity needs of Cape Cod, which has a year-round population of 215,000.
Read more at Yale Environment360.