US set for offshore wind farms

Areas along Atlantic coast to be 'opened up' for turbines

Large areas of land along the Atlantic coast of the United States of America will be opened up for the development of offshore wind farms by the Obama administration. 

Competitive lease sales of around 432 square miles of land off the coast of states such as Virginia, Rhode Island and Massachusetts will be offered by mid-2013, with the scheme looking to launch the country’s first offshore wind farm project. Despite hundreds of turbines being built across America over the past few years, all of them have been on the mainland, and wind farms themselves still only make up 3% of the country’s energy use.

This could be the scene across the Atlantic coast of the US within a few years

(Image source - The Guardian)

According to the US government, there is enough wind along the Atlantic coast to power up to 1.4 million homes, which is seen as ‘enormous potential’ by Kevin Salazar, the interior secretary, who sees the scheme as a way of ‘moving closer to tapping into this massive domestic energy resource to create jobs, increase our energy security and strengthen our nation’s competitiveness in this new energy frontier’.

However, whilst there is enthusiasm among many for this scheme, there may also be criticism. Building turbines offshore is much more expensive than building them on land, and there are many people opposed to turbines due to their visual impact. The proposed turbines would be 10 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and around 23 nautical miles from Virginia. Officials stated that the sites were chosen to avoid environmental concerns and backlash from locals.