The United States seems to be finally waking up to the realization that offshore wind farms are a relatively painless, although not cheap, method of generating large-scale renewable energy. As NHPR reports, New Hampshire doesn’t want to be left out:
New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts will work together on large-scale offshore wind development in the Gulf of Maine. … “This is not just a project. This is not just an individual, ‘we’re going to find a site and put a couple of turbines up,’” Taylor Caswell, commissioner of the state’s Department of Business and Economic Affairs, says. “This is the establishment of, really, a whole new industry.”
There are stories galore out there right now about the desire to put wind turbines off almost every coastline in the country. What I haven’t seen is stories about how we’re going to build all the necessary transmission lines to carry gigawatts of electricity from the coastal landing point to customers. I can’t imagine that owners of coastal property will celebrate a parade of HVDC towers marching inland past them.
Return to the Concord Monitor