Posted on 11/24/2014 11:42:10 AM PST by thackney
The federal government today announced that it will hold its largest-ever competitive lease sale for offshore wind development in January.
The feds will allow a dozen developers to bid on access to more than 742,000 acres off the coast of Massachusetts (map) starting Jan. 29, the Interior Department said Monday.
The sale would triple the amount of federal offshore acreage available for commercial-scale offshore wind development, the department said.
That area — if fully developed — could support as much as five gigawatts of commercial wind generation, enough to power more than 1.4 million homes, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“This offshore wind energy area not only has the capacity to generate enough electricity to power half the homes in Massachusetts, but it will create local jobs and a renewable and home-grown source of power,” Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said in a statement.
Ten companies have expressed interest in the lease area, according to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The federal government has awarded seven commercial wind energy leases off the Atlantic coast to date.
Offshore wind projects were first developed in 1991. Since then, they’ve primarily operated in Europe. The federal government has been trying to promote them here in the U.S., since more than half the country’s population lives in coastal areas, and offshore winds tend to blow more forcefully and uniformly than wind over land.
Globally, about 4.45 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity has been installed across more than 50 projects, according to the BOEM.
“I don’t see this as worse than an oil platform. I’m in favor of those.”
Well, if you can throw a directional drilling rig in there and make it look like a windmill, you might have an opportunity to make a net positive energy impact.
This is outside state control, 12 miles and farther offshore.
Beam me up Scotty no intelligent life anywhere...
Then it must have been on the Kennedy side until they were told to move it or lose it.
It starts at 12 miles then later on moves closer to shore. Camel nose in tent.
Nope. The fed limit is at 12 miles, no closer. It goes out to ~40 miles.
Different Projects. The other one that Kennedy hated is still in play. That one is in State Waters. This is for Federal Waters farther away.
Offshore wind is expensive and has never made money, even in Europe.
The maintenance is a nightmare.
We tried this off the coast of DE in one the most consistently windy spots on the planet 7 miles offshore.
The numbers did not work.
Also, without a way to store the energy to release it to the grid on a steady basis, the vagaries of output play havoc on the grid operators.
You still need back-up power sources.
Agreed. Wind is essentially fuel savings for Natural Gas Turbines. You still need to build the load capacity.
That won’t work now. Since Kennedy is dead then where will all the hot air come from to spin the windmill blades?
Could be a bonanza for scrap metal pirates.
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