QUICK NEWS, 10-18: OCEAN WIND BENEFITS BEGIN; NEW WIRES FOR OCEAN WIND; FISHERMEN GOOD WITH OCEAN WIND; WATCH-OUTS ON OCEAN WIND

OCEAN WIND BENEFITS BEGIN
Cape Wind lures business to Mass.; Patrick says at least 100 manufacturing jobs to follow
Beth Daley, October 13, 2010 (Boston Globe)

"Enormous steel pilings that Cape Wind’s 130 proposed wind turbines would sit upon will be manufactured locally, creating more than 100 jobs…[Massachusetts’] Mass Tank Sales Corporation is partnering with EEW Group of Germany, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of offshore wind structural parts, to open a facility that could also serve other offshore wind projects now under development along the East Coast…

"…[T]he facility will be the first manufacturing plant directly related to Cape Wind and comes as the project navigates its final regulatory hurdles after almost 10 years of review. The state Department of Public Utilities is examining a controversial contract between National Grid and Cape Wind for the purchase of 50 percent of the park’s power to see if it is a good deal for electricity customers…[T]he federal government awarded Cape Wind the nation’s first offshore wind lease in federal waters."

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"The two companies will partner to build 400-ton steel foundations 17 feet in diameter and 180-220 feet long, which will be driven into the seabed and serve as the supports for the turbines. Each takes about a week and a half to construct. More than 50,000 tons of steel will be needed – representing the largest order of steel in the United States in a decade…

"…[T]he partnership is not only for Cape Wind – and it could ultimately result in as many as 350 jobs as the US offshore wind industry grows. Yet there is likely to be a gap of several or more years between Cape Wind’s construction and other East Coast offshore wind projects. In that time, the new facility may ship the pilings overseas as well as try to find domestic contracts for steel pipes with the U.S. offshore oil and gas industry…"


NEW WIRES FOR OCEAN WIND
$5 Billion Plan to Build First Offshore Power Transmission System; Some offshore wind players argue a big-ticket transmission backbone would only drive up the cost of delivering power to customers
Tom Johnson, October 13, 2010 (NJ Spotlight)

"The nation has yet to build its first offshore wind farm, but that fact isn’t preventing some deep-pocketed investors from backing a $5 billion offshore transmission system…The project, involving a 350-mile long underwater transmission line stretching from Virginia to New Jersey, aims to tap into the vast wind potential identified off the coast…[and] capitalize on the twin goals of the eastern states, to promote renewable energy sources and decrease their dependence on fossil fuels.

"Its backers say the proposal could be the 'spark' that paves the way for a new industry, one with the potential of thousands of new jobs along the East Coast…[I]t could reduce project costs for the proposed wind farms…by cutting transmission needs…The proposed undersea transmission backbone would be capable of carrying 6,000 megawatts of power, enough to serve 1.9 million homes…"

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"…Trans-Elect Development Corp., an independent transmission company…would build the backbone…There are many uncertainties…not least the $5 billion price tag, which probably ultimately would be borne by electric customers…[If] the project is underway by 2013 and operational by 2016…[that would be] before any offshore wind farms are operating, a fact that likely would lead to cheap coal power being carried by the transmission system from the South into the Northeast…

"…[Environmentalists] would consent to that tradeoff because of the potential of tapping renewable energy off the coast. The federal government projects a potential of 60,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity along the eastern seaboard."

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"Without the backbone transmission system, the regional power grid would probably not be able to handle any new offshore wind projects after an initial 1,000 megawatts are deployed…[B]ackers, which include Google, Inc., are providing the initial investment for the Atlantic Wind Connection project developed by Trans-Elect Development Corp…

"Atlantic Wind Connection needs approval from various governmental and other agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. PJM Interconnection, which operates the regional power grid covering the East Coast out to Chicago, also must give its blessing…[T]he project developers anticipate their biggest hurdle will be getting PJM’s approval."


FISHERMEN GOOD WITH OCEAN WIND
Wind energy officials say ocean projects won't harm fishing industry
Ben Leach, October 12, 2010 (Press of Atlantic City)

"Wind energy officials speaking at a Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting…assured the board that their projects would not hurt the fishing industry.

"Dan Cohen, president of Cape May-based Fishermen’s Energy, told the council there are still a number of hurdles on the federal level, so his company is focusing on a pilot project located 2.8 miles off the coast of Atlantic City, keeping it within state waters."

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"Since the company is funded 100 percent by commercial fishing companies, according to Cohen, they are doing as much studying ahead of time as necessary to minimize the impact of wind turbine construction on any fisheries off the coastline.

"An ecological study done by the state…[found] that the impact of the offshore wind turbines on the marine environment would be “minimal” …[and] the company received no negative comments from a public comment period this year…[It] is awaiting the results of another public comment period being held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…[expects to have] permits soon…[and wants] to make Atlantic City the official birthplace of offshore wind in the United States."

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"…[T]he company is planning to develop a 6,000-megawatt grid that runs parallel to the coast of the eastern United States from southern Virginia to northern New Jersey…When wind farms are constructed and hooked up to the grid…[it] could provide 21 million-megawatt hours worth of electricity annually.

"Since this would be expanding over a larger area in federal waters, and they would need multiple connection points to get the energy generated by wind power back onto land, a number of studies still need to be performed, especially concerning marine life off the coast…"


WATCH-OUTS ON OCEAN WIND
Some Cautionary Notes on Atlantic Wind Connection
Bill Sweet, October 15, 2010 (IEEE Spectrum)

"…[The Google-backed] Atlantic Wind Connection--a proposed offshore grid to link up offshore wind with onshore grids in Virginia, Delaware, and New Jersey--got [NY Times headlines]…Google is well known for its visionary long-term investment strategy and…has bet heavily on green technologies…in part because of sensitivities arising from its power-hogging server farms. The large investment Google is prepared to make in the so-called Atlantic Wind Connection naturally gives the project a credibility it might otherwise lack.

"Nevertheless, some sober-minded words of caution are in order…First, and most obviously, this is a long-term project; even if all goes as hoped, it will not begin to yield its full rewards for a decade…Second, to move at all, it has to get through numerous regulatory hoops involving three states and at least several Federal agencies…Third, politics will come into play too…"

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"Already there's grumbling in Virginia that if the transmission backbone is used initially to transport the state's relatively inexpensive electricity up to New Jersey, where it's more costly, local rates will rise…

"If this kind of argument about who's gaining and who's losing gets heated enough, skeptics may even start asking whether the right offshore wind resource is being exploited…Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey have a combined offshore potential of about 50 GW. But Michigan, to take just one of the Great Lakes states and provinces, has an offshore potential nearly double that…[I]f offshore wind ever gets really really big in the United States, it may be in the old industrial heartland on the Great Lakes, not off the two ocean coasts."