The USA has reached a new milestone in the development of its renewable energy industry by issuing leases to investigate the offshore wind power potential in two northeastern states.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar called the move a major step forward in President Obama’s new energy frontier. He has issued five leases covering the outer continental shelf area of New Jersey and Delaware.
The exploratory leases are the first of their kind ever to have been issued by the federal government and have been awarded to Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy LLC, Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey LLC, Deepwater Wind LLC, and Bluewater Wind Delaware LLC. They are part of wider plans by the Obama administration to expand the use of renewable energy and boost employment in the USA.
The US government is also planning the expansion of solar power, geothermal energy, onshore wind, fuel cells and other clean energy technologies with the help of federal economic stimulus funds.
The leases authorize data gathering activities through the construction of meteorological towers on the outer continental shelf from six to 18 miles offshore to collect site-specific data on wind speed, intensity, and direction.
The data collected will be shared with the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service and used to support future commercial renewable energy projects.
“We are entering a new day for energy production in the United States – a time of clean energy from renewable domestic sources on our outer continental shelf,” Secretary Salazar said. “Other nations have been using offshore wind energy for more than a decade. We made the development of offshore wind energy a top priority for Interior. The technology is proven, effective and available.”
The state of New Jersey is actively pursuing the development of offshore wind energy to help it to meet a target of 1000 MW of renewable energy by 2013 and 3000 MW by 2020. In October 2008, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities established a meteorological tower reimbursement programme, which provides $4 million per company to help expedite the development of offshore wind.
“This is tremendous news for New Jersey and I thank Secretary Salazar and the Obama Administration for issuing these leases which are so critical to getting the development of our offshore wind turbine projects underway,” said New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine. “New Jersey’s outer continental shelf is a resource that holds a great promise for our energy independence and should be considered a haven for the clean, renewable and environmentally friendly energy that wind power provides.”
The end of June also saw the Obama administration announce the availability of up to $32 million of economic stimulus package funding to help the USA modernize its hydropower facilities. The funding will be awarded on a competitive basis to modernization projects that can be undertaken without significant modifications to dams.
The funding is designed to support the deployment of turbines and control technologies to increase power generation and environmental stewardship at existing non-federal hydroelectric facilities.
“There’s no one solution to the energy crisis, but hydropower is clearly part of the solution and represents a major opportunity to create more clean energy jobs,” said US Energy Secretary Chu. “Investing in our existing hydropower infrastructure will strengthen our economy, reduce pollution and help us toward energy independence.”
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