Jan 20 2010

Wind Power: Dead in the Water?

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

If California solar developers think they have it bad, waiting endless months for permit reviews, consider the case of Cape Wind, the first offshore wind project proposed in the United States.

That $900 million project, sited off the coast of Cape Cod., Mass., has been in limbo for nine years while local residents, dismayed by the prospect of giant wind turbines spoiling their views of Nantucket Sound, have waged guerrilla warfare to kill it. Further delays were ensured when two Indian tribes this month persuaded the National Park Service that the project might interfere with their spiritual practices.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the European Wind Energy Association reported Monday that developers last year connected to the European grid 199 offshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of 577 megawatts--a third more than the entire Cape Wind project. EWEA projects that another 1,000 MW of offshore wind capacity will be added this year, continuing the dizzy pace of growth in the market. 

And that's not the half of it. Some 17 offshore wind farms are now under construction in European waters, totaling more than 3,500 MW of capacity, and 52 more have been approved with a combined capacity of more than 16,000 MW. (By way of comparison, peak demand in PG&E's service area runs about 21,000 MW.)

Much more is coming. Great Britain this month announced the winners of a third round of offshore licenses in the North Sea for up to 32,000 MW of wind power. The government expects construction to begin in 2014 and all projects to be completed by 2020. The projects could end up supplying a quarter of the country's entire electricity demand.

The United States does have a handful of small offshore wind projects under consideration off the Eastern seabord, but nothing remotely comparable to Europe. Unfortunately, the high prices that U.S. developers are seeking make some of these projects unappealing to utilities shopping for more renewable power.

If the United States could get its act together, it could potentially tap offshore wind resources totaling 900,000 megawatts, according to the Department of Energy. Polls show strong public support for projects in the Eastern seabord states with the best offshore wind potential. (California, with its deep coastal waters, is unsuited to traditional offshore turbines.) But until state and federal governments can set forth clear policies and streamline their reviews, the United States will remain an embarrassing laggard in the race to tap this enormous source of clean energy.

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