THE POWER OF EASTERN WIND

Study finds huge wind energy potential off Eastern U.S.
Scott Malone (w/Matthew Lewis), September 28, 2010 (Reuters)

"The densely populated U.S. East Coast could meet close to half its current electric demand by relying on offshore wind turbines…North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia offer the most potential for easily captured wind energy, according to [Untapped Wealth: Offshore Wind Can Deliver…], which estimates that the 13 coastal states could together generate 127 gigawatts of power.

"That represents the potential for far more wind power than the United States currently generates… At the end of 2009, the nation's land-based turbines…[produced] some 35,000 megawatts of power -- enough to meet the needs of 28 million typical American homes."

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"Investment in new wind turbines has surged in recent years…However, all the U.S. wind farms built so far are on land. Advocates of offshore wind installations, led by backers of the Cape Wind facility proposed off the Cape Cod beach area in Massachusetts, have been working for almost a decade to try to win approval to build [the nation's first offshore wind farm]…Opponents of Cape Wind argue that it could harm fisheries as well as sully views. [Developers are also working on projects off Rhode Island, Delaware and New Jersey]…

"Oceana argues that wind offers an attractive alternative to offshore oil and natural gas drilling, particularly in the wake of the April BP Plc rig explosion, which led to an undersea leak that poured oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico for 153 days…Oceana [also] argued the electricity generated by wind off the East Coast would save $36 billion in energy costs over a 20-year period and create 133,000 to 212,000 installation and maintenance jobs a year…"

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"Hitting the 127 gigawatt number could mean installing 30,000 to 50,000 of the spinning turbines along the U.S. East Coast. That would be the equivalent of more than 200 projects the size of Cape Wind [but that estimate could well decline as turbine sizes increase from today’s 2.5 megawatts to 4 megawatts]…

"Oceana's analysis…leaves out the New England states of New Hampshire and Maine [and the West Coast], because their shorelines drop away quickly to deeper waters where it would be more difficult for developers to install turbines…"