World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

December 14, 2003 – Vol.8 No.38

WORLD WIND WATCH.

The U.K. is moving rapidly towards becoming the world leader in offshore wind energy. The Crown Estate, which manages the rights to U.K. waters and the bottom where turbines are planted, has offered leases for 15 projects that, if all are built, will generate between 5.4 and 7.2 gigawatts of electricity - enough power for 4 million U.K. homes, one in six households.

The project sites are in shallow waters of the Thames Estuary, Greater Wash and the North West. One project at 1.2 GW will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world. Three of the projects are actually outside British territorial waters. For a full list of the announced projects, including locations, developers and capacity visit the Crown Estate at http://www.crownestate.co.uk/ .

In its resource supply plan through 2010, Alliant Energy Corp. has announced that it will include power purchases of 230 megawatts of wind power, 130 of which will be built in Iowa and 100 megawatts in Wisconsin. The plan also includes 30 megawatts of anaerobic digesters and 1140 megawatts of natural gas-fired generation.

The company also scrapped plans to build a coal-fired plant. Visit Alliant Energy at http://www.alliantenergy.com/ .

Nebraska Public Power District gave its management permission to build a 30-megawatt windfarm near Ainsworth, Nebraska. The NPPD also determined that the project could be expanded to 75 megawatts.

Wind resources are good in Nebraska, and combined with state-of-the-art wind technology the cost per kilowatt hour for the 30-megawatt project is expected average 2.77 cents per kilowatt hour, and for a 75-megawatt project 2.545 cents.

Visit the Nebraska Public Power District at http://www.nppd.com/