World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

April 21, 2002 – Vol.7 No.4

WORLD WIND WATCH.

If some of America’s most rich and famous can bear to see them on the horizon, wind turbines could begin to gather in 3 to 5 years on a 314 square mile patch of the Atlantic Ocean off the southeast end of Long Island, New York. A new study - Long Island’s Offshore Wind Energy Development Potential: A Preliminary Assessment - showed that 5200 megawatts of power - the minimal power requirement for more than 5 million homes - could be generated from winds blowing 3-6 nautical miles offshore from some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

If this project were too ambitious, a smaller project with 2250 megawatts capacity, could built in the same area three nautical miles from shore in waters less than fifty feet deep.

The cost of building a 100 megawatt project would be $150-180 million, with the undersea interconnection with the mainland grid costing $40-70 million.

Typically the turbines would rise 426 feet above the waves, about the height of a 40 story building. The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) will take the first step towards building offshore wind capacity by meeting with potential wind developers on June 25.

Hopefully the well-healed residents will do their bit for the their country and the planet when their input is considered, and approve of the graceful, slender turbines slowly turning on the horizon.

The study was co-funded by LIPA and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Visit LIPA at http://www.lipower.org/ , NYSERDA at http://www.nyserda.org/ .

Spanish wind energy group Gamesa Energia plans to triple its installed wind capacity to 1380 megawatts by 2004. The company is now studying 514 sites worldwide in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France, Brazil, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Australia and China. The company now has 18 wind farms in Spain. Visit Gamesa at http://www.gamesa.es/ .

An article in New Scientist Magazine reports that 5 of the 18 offshore wind projects in the U.K. may never be built because they may obscure military aviation radar and stand in the flight paths of nearby airforce bases. The British Wind Energy Association claims that radar reflective coatings could be used on the turbines or the structures could be installed, apparently, at different sites.