Wind Power

In early April Interior Secretary Ken Salazar suggested that the amount of “developable” wind power of the East Coast. He stated “According to our report there is over 1,000 gigawatts of power, that's a million megawatts of power, that are developable off the Atlantic coast. You think about that, put it in the context of what it means, with respect to an analogy to, or a comparison to coal-fired power plants, it's the equivalent of the amount of energy that would be produced from about 3,000 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. That's a tremendous amount of energy that's out there in the Atlantic.”

Salazar has been rightly criticized for saying that it “is a very real possibility.” First, the wind power is not reliable enough to replace coal or other types of power plants. There would still need to be other sources to provide power when the wind is not of sufficient strength.

Second, while it is true that if the enter Atlantic Coast was dotted with wind generators, and if they were each running at full capacity, they would generate double the amount of power the USA produced in 2008. But that is the rub, the entire coast would have wind power plants up and down the coast. That is an unrealistic goal. Just to produce 20% of the nation’s power needs would take an area about the size of Rhode Island (or double the size of PEI).

Third, over 75% of the power sites are in areas where the depth is more than 30 meters and too deep to be economically feasible.

All that said, what projects are economically feasible should move forward, not just off-shore but across the country. As a nation we need to get beyond the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome and the “aesthetic pollution” objections raised by the well off folks with their multimillion dollar summer homes in Nantucket Sound, the off-shore site of a proposed wind farm. For me these generators are no more aesthetic pollution than apartment and business buildings that rise well above the tree-tops or the factory plants that sprawl for hundreds of acres, most of which are financed and owned by those who are objecting to wind farms off the coast of Nantucket.

No matter who is making the claims, wind power is not the magic solution that will meet most of our needs, but it is a good environmentally friendly solution to pursue. It is a source that can significantly contribute to the electric grid and decrease power that is generated by non-renewable sources. Salazar should continue to promote renewable energy sources but do so with realistic statements, statements that help move the cause along rather than become the focal point of argument.