Another recent NREL report, "Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy Resources in the United States," concluded there's 4,150 GW of potential offshore wind capacity in the U.S. The estimate doesn't exclude areas that could be excluded from energy development on the basis of environmental, human use, or technical considerations. According to DOE's Energy Information Administration, in 2008 the nation's total electric generating capacity from all sources was 1,010 GW. See the NREL press release and the report .
Meanwhile, other offshore wind projects continue to go forward. Garden State Offshore Energy announced on October 4 that it's moving forward with plans to install state-of-the-art mobile, floating wind resource assessment equipment to assess conditions at its proposed offshore wind farm site, located 20 miles off the New Jersey coast.
Farther up the Atlantic Coast, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the State of Maine formed an offshore renewable energy task force to facilitate communication among BOEM and local, state, tribal, and other federal stakeholders concerning offshore leasing and development. Similar task forces have been established in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, Delaware, and Maryland, and are in process for New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida.
Lastly, the nation's first freshwater offshore wind plant is also moving ahead, as the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) announced on September 14 that it has selected a team of three companies to develop an offshore wind farm on Lake Erie. The initial pilot project will be a five-turbine, 20 MW wind farm, located 5-10 miles off the shore of Cleveland, Ohio. Construction on the initial phase is tentatively scheduled to begin in late 2012. See the press releases from GSOE , the BOEM , and LEEDCo.
Interior Approves First Solar Tower on U.S. Public Lands
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) approved on October 7 the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the first large scale solar project on U.S. public lands to use "power tower" technology.
Proposed by BrightSource Energy, the project could produce up to 370 MW, enough to power 111,000-277,500 American homes. Located in San Bernardino County, California, the project is expected to create 1100 solar jobs. The DOI decision authorizes Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to offer BrightSource a right-of-way grant to use public lands for 30 years if all rents and other conditions are met. The site is in Southern California's Mojave Desert, near the Nevada border.
The three solar thermal plants will employ mirror fields that focus solar energy on tower receivers near the center of each array. Solar boilers in the towers generate steam to drive a turbine that generates electricity.
The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013. To reduce environmental impact, BLM shrunk the size of the project by over 15%, from 4073 acres to 3471 acres, and it reduced the number of heliostats (solar mirrors) from 214,000 to 173,500.
As part of the Recovery Act, renewable energy developers can apply for grants for up to 30% of a project's cost if they begin construction by the end of 2010. Also under the Recovery Act, DOE awarded BrightSource $1.37 billion in conditional loan guarantees for this project. See the
DOI press release and an
fact sheet on Ivanpah .
