America’s First Offshore Wind Farm May Power Up a New Industry

Last edited Mon Aug 22, 2016, 04:27 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: New York Times

BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. — The towering machines stand a few miles from shore, in a precise line across the seafloor, as rigid in the ocean breeze as sailors reporting for duty.

The blades are locked in place for now, but sometime in October, they will be turned loose to capture the power of the wind. And then, after weeks of testing and fine-tuning, America’s first offshore wind farm will begin pumping power into the New England electric grid.

By global standards, the Block Island Wind Farm is a tiny project, just five turbines capable of powering about 17,000 homes. Yet many people are hoping its completion, with the final blade bolted into place at the end of last week, will mark the start of a new American industry, one that could eventually make a huge contribution to reducing the nation’s climate-changing pollution.

The idea of building turbines offshore, where strong, steady wind could, in theory, generate large amounts of power, has long been seen as a vital step toward a future based on renewable energy. Yet even as European nations installed thousands of the machines, American proposals ran into roadblocks, including high costs, murky rules about the use of the seafloor, and stiff opposition from people who did not want their ocean views marred by machinery.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/science/americas-first-offshore-wind-farm-may-power-up-a-new-industry.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

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Offshore wind is catching on here in the good ole USA..........

Cut down on carbon emissions, save our lungs, keep some people employed here and cut down on oil imports - what could be better......

And it's on it's way to beating out fossil fuels in terms of price in the near future........

One of my favorite charts from wikipeida....




It's from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source

A new greener day is arriving hopefully......

And in the end, maybe those very rich people (some of whom are our fellow democrats) who live where the Cape Wind project is supposed to go will let it be built.

But generally support for offshore wind seems to be bi-partisan.

burfman............................