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Offshore wind power is a sustainable source of energy. Friends and foes alike recognize that the relatively short time from blueprint to operation makes wind energy the next best hope for reducing carbon emissions in the near term. (Banana farmers know that negawatts are least cost, most sustainable.)
Still this blog has despaired that the state of New York, despite being the headquarters for GE Energy, which wants a greater share of the off-shore wind market, would continue to fail. Despite having areas with excellent 7 to 9 wind quality close to major transmission lines, New York would not be one of those state where wind power development is most needed.
This blog despaired that developers of New York offshore wind development would continue to meet too great an opposition. Yet there is a glimmer of hope. Could the hundreds of large turbines that New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg envisioned off the Long Island Shore actually materialize off the New Jersey Shore? And, then, would not the opposition in New York look rather foolish?
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Located 30 kilometers off the west coast of Jutland in the North Sea, the 209 megawatt Horns Rev 2 now is the largest off-shore wind farm and inspiration for Mayor Bloomberg.
Timothy B. Hurst reports that New Jersey legislature has passed the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act.
The Offshore Wind Economic Development Act (pdf) directs the state’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to establish an offshore renewable energy certificate program that calls for a percentage of electricity sold in the state to be from offshore wind energy. The act would support the development of at least 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind energy capacity.
The bill was signed into law yesterday by Gov. Chris Christie yesterday at a former BP port facility that will be transformed into a regional hub for the offshore wind industry.
“Developing New Jersey’s renewable energy resources and industry is critical to our state’s manufacturing and technology future,” Christie said.
The package will offer incentives including financial aid and tax credits to attract wind energy developers to the state’s waters.
Two offshore wind development companies, Fishermen’s Energy and Deepwater Wind, already have plans to develop offshore wind energy off the coast of New Jersey.
A report released last year by the Interior Department said shallow-water offshore wind farms could supply as much as 20% of the electricity in most coastal states. Researchers at the University of Delaware project that an average of 33 percent (and at most 47 percent) of yearly averaged wind power from interconnected farms could serve as reliable base load electric power. And, along the Atlantic Coast, much of that potential is in the form of off-shore wind energy. In the above map, the purple, red and dark blue areas are winds over 7.5 meters/sec (16.6 mph), more profitable and thus potentially good candidates for early development of wind turbines.
As this blog has noted before, wind power for the Eastern Interconnection — a service area in which more than 70 percent of the U.S. population lives — is a core climate solution. If utilities take responsibility for their impact upon the climate, then they would more likely choose wind as base load. Such a system requires sufficient geographic diversity of turbines and an effective distribution system.
In the US East Coast, as in much of the coastal areas of the world, the large wind power resource is over ocean and not over land. As offshore wind development moves forward in New Jersey, industry advocates are hopeful that the first Atlantic Coast wind farm will become a reality. The proposed Cape Wind offshore wind farm in Massachusetts is still fending off some last-ditch legal challenges. In neighboring Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri is hopeful for off-shore wind development. He notes that states are leading the way in off-shore wind development because it spurs economic development, helps to stabilize energy costs, and moves our country towards energy independence in a sustainable fashion.
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