Wind farm is coming
The shallow water just miles from the Rehoboth Beach shoreline could be the site of the country's first offshore wind farm -- but it will not be the only one, as similar projects are racing forward in Massachusetts and New York, experts say.
With more Americans focused on green energy and concerned about dependence on foreign oil, it's just a matter of time before hundreds of turbines harnessing the wind could line the shore from Massachusetts to North Carolina.
The energy bill the U.S. Senate approved last week authorized $5 million to study where offshore wind farms would be best located on the East Coast. Such an assessment could spur further interest from wind-energy businesses. The House still must approve the measure.
East Coast wind energy got another boost this week when the U.S. Department of Energy selected Massachusetts as the home for one of two new wind turbine blade-testing facilities. Massachusetts and Texas each will receive $2 million grants to build research centers.
The funding comes while the wind-energy industry is booming, booking record growth of on-land turbines from New York to California with enough energy capacity to power 3 million homes this year, according to the American Wind Energy Association trade group.
Still, wind represents less than 1 percent of energy consumption in the U.S., lagging far behind the rest of the world. The Energy Department wants to up that amount to 20 percent by 2030.
Now that the technology exists to convert wind to electricity, it makes sense to know the size and location of the best offshore wind resources, said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., during a news conference earlier this week.
"We want to make sure we know where to put the wind farms," said Carper, who pushed for the study. "We need to get started. ... The wind power is here."
Twenty-eight coastal states use about 78 percent of electricity nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
More than 900,000 megawatts of wind generation capacity exists within 50 miles off U.S. coasts, according to the Energy Department. That's an amount roughly equal to current installed U.S. electrical capacity.
Off the coast of central to southern Delaware, wind conditions --upwards of 15.7 mph -- are good for generating electricity, said George Douglas, spokesman for the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
"You can definitely make electricity at a reasonable cost," he said.
