RI Wind Farms Set to Do More Than Expected
By Christa
Deepwater Wind, the company behind Rhode Islandās first offshore wind farm, has apparently increased the size of its project and it is now projected that the wind farm will generate 1000 MW of green electrical power. How do you generate that much power? How about 200 wind turbines that will be placed at least 18 miles off the Rhode Island coast, where according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, things can get pretty windy. Increasing the size of the project means that Deepwater Wind can sell the wind energy produced for somewhere between 15-18 cents/kWh, which is high for the U.S. but fairly close to the New England average. Sounds good to me!
Background: Those in favor of wind farms will tell you that a single utility-scale wind farm (350 mw) can generate enough clean energy to power 125,000 homes every year without users ever seeing a fuel adjustment charge. As for the offshore wind farms that had everyone in such a tizzy around my locale – hello, Cape Wind -they’re apparently set in deep waters, where they are virtually invisible from shore. The anti-wind farm crowd counters that wind power is intermittent and thus cannot generate enough energy to ensure a steady output, which means back-up coal or gas power plants will always be a necessity. I’m not going to bother with the argument that they ruin views of the natural landscape – I personally think big ugly factories and electric wires do the same, but I understand the necessity of both.
What do you think about wind farms and wind power in general? Are they a viable green energy option? Or just a stepping stone on the way to something more reliable?
December 29th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Careful now, in New England the phrase “Wind Farm” is almost and dangerous as the phrase “New York Yankees”
December 29th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Please! Please! Please! Please use the correct units. It’s MW, not mw. M = Mega = million, m = milli = 1/1000.
December 29th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
@phyllis Don’t I know it – for a long time, I couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing all about the latest Cape Wind controversy!
@Jaddy My bad – I’ll fix it, of course.
January 8th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
“We hope that ultimately solar energy can be extensively used in the commercial sector as well as the private sector. Imagine solar cells installed in cars to absorb solar energy to replace the traditional use of diesel and gas. People will vie to park their cars on the top level of parking garages so their cars can be charged under sunlight. Using the same principle, cell phones can also be charged by solar energy. There are such a wide variety of applications.”