U.S. NEEDS OCEAN WIND ICON

Offshore Wind ‘Moon Landing’ May Kick-Start Development in U.S.
Ehren Goossens, October 12, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"The U.S. needs its own version of Alpha Ventus, Germany’s first offshore wind farm, to drive the industry on this side of the Atlantic, wind developers and officials said.

"There are almost a dozen wind farms planned off U.S. shores and none are under construction. One, Cape Wind in Massachusetts, has been in the works for a decade and it’s still not clear when the first turbines will be installed…Completing a project in U.S. waters would show that developers can complete the permitting and financing processes and may provide a needed spark to the industry…"

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"E.ON AG, Vattenfall Europe AG and the German utility EWE AG invested 250 million euros ($333 million) to install Alpha Ventus’s 12 turbines about 45 kilometers (28 miles) off the German coast. They went into operation in April 2010, giving the country’s developers confidence to plan additional projects in the North Sea…

"More than 1,200 megawatts of offshore wind capacity was installed worldwide last year, and total capacity is expected to reach 20 gigawatts in 2015…Of that, 658 megawatts will be in the U.S…Energy Secretary Steven Chu set in February a goal of 10 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the U.S. by 2020 and 54 gigawatts by 2030…"