USA - Offshore wind power being developed on the East Coast

The two projects, one south of Long Island, in New York, and one in Massachusetts' Nantucket Sound, are currently moving through the complicated process of securing permits from various agencies, and both could be turning out juice in a few years. Offshore wind farms -- row after row of massive wind turbines sprouting from the sea miles from land -- have become a relatively common source of commercial electrical power in Europe, but these would be the first in this country. The Cape Wind project, off Cape Cod in Nantucket Sound, filed its first proposal in November 2001 with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over construction projects more than three miles from shore. Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Cape Wind Associates, said the Corps issued a draft environmental impact report last November that favored the wind farm, and is currently evaluating the more than 5,000 public comments that were submitted during the process.

It is expected to produce as much as 454 megawatts of electricity -- almost double the 230 megawatts required by people in the Cape Cod region. The 40 turbines, about four miles offshore, could generate up to 140 megawatts, enough to provide power for 44,000 Long Island homes, according to Dan Zaweski, LIPA's director of energy efficiency and distributed-generation programs. According to the American Wind Energy Association, U.S. wind farms were generating 6,740 megawatts at the end of 2004, enough to serve 1.6 million homes. Adrienne Esposito, the executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said that wind power is "our best hope for the future. Audra Parker, the assistant director of Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said the windmills would pose a threat to birds and marine mammals, and the project could affect the region's economy.