The wheels are turning for NJ wind power
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
By: Tom MacDonald
tmacdonald@whyy.org
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar traveled to Atlantic City New Jersey to announce the awarding of five leases for exploratory wind energy projects off the coast of New Jersey and Delaware. The awards are the start of the quest for a significant amount of alternative energy.
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There are 30 offshore wind farms in Europe, but none in America. The award of licenses for test towers to see if offshore wind is economically viable is the first step to building massive wind generating facilities between 6 and 18 miles off the coast. Peter Mandalstam is president of Blue Water Wind.
Mandalstam: And so all the dollars and all the jobs stay here in the local community, there is after all no fuel, we're not shipping our money overseas to pay for fuel. When you build a wind farm you essentially buy 25 years worth of fuel on day one. So good well paying American, and from my company's point of view, union jobs.
If the tests are successful, the generating facilities could be build within five years and produce enough power for 350 thousand homes in New Jersey.
