U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signs first offshore wind farm lease

[ProSense]

Source: NJ Star Ledger

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Cape Wind President Jim Gordon signed the first lease for an offshore wind farm in the federal waters of the U.S. this morning at the American Wind Energy Association’s Offshore Wind Conference in Atlantic City.

The lease authorizes Cape Wind to construct the 130 turbine offshore wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound, and to operate the facility for a period of 25 years.

Last month the U.S. Department of Energy unveiled a draft plan that calls for the United States to install 54,000 megawatts of offshore wind power capacity by the year 2030, which would require more than 100 Cape Wind-sized projects.

Last year, the state Board of Public Utilities gave development rights, and $4 million in rebates, to three off-shore wind companies to build test towers off the Atlantic City shore. The companies were granted interim licenses for four proposed sites off Jersey’s shore.



Read more: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/us_interior_secretary_ken_sala.html

[pampango]

1. Gotta be something wrong with this. Give me a minute.

JK. It may have some downsides but wind power has fewer than practically any other.

[newscott]

3. People are up in arms about migratory birds etc...

Don't you worry there's someone protest every advancement.

[HillbillyBob]

4. I wonder why no one talks about vawt?

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines tend to look like solid columns to birds and other flying critters, so they avoid them.

[molly77]

5. If you will research wind power you will

see that the tubines do not produce nearly the power that they purport. There is a 20 year life span. If they were not heavily subsidized by tax dollars, they would not exist as they are not competitive. I have a large wind farm near my house. The corporation which built it, First Wind, has in their SEC report that their power purchase agreements do not require them to produce power to foreign countries. We are close to Canada...so they do not have to produce energy. New England for some reason has cap and trade in place although not passed by congress. The money is in the Renewable Energy Credits.

As Matt Taiibi says , cap and trade will be the next bubble. The middle man will be cut out. The money will go straight to wall street.

New England rate payers were charged for 40 million dollars worth of power not produced. Conn AG Blumenthal took Iso New England all the way to the supreme court over it. Of course , the Supremes sided with the corporations. Don't think deregulation was supposed to work out this way.

[Celefin]

6. American problem?

This does sound strange... here in Denmark 22% of the current energy demand is met by wind with a target of 50% by 2025.
The modern turbines currently being installed have so far delivered up to 30% -more- energy than calculated, making them very lucrative investments. Which is why new sites are being established ever faster, now also mainly offshore.
That said, the renewable energy premiums are high and considering the engineering advances in efficiency definitely too high (at least in Denmark).
Off course, as soon as you get corruption (or at least dodgy deals) into the picture as you seem to suggest everything deteriorates. We do have examples of that as well.

[young but wise]

2. Yes, this is what I'm talking about.

Wind spills instead of oil spills.

[robcon]

7. Good news.

The technology has to catch up, though. Living off subsidized power is as bad as living off oil, IMO.

[newscott]

8. Kinda funny

In my Republican heavy town in MA, yes about 75% vote Republican, we have town owned power. It is one of the cheapest rates around too. People love it when it's to their benefit. I suspect if there were more municipal owned plants things would get cheaper not more expensive.