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Wind farm idea is floated; Offshore turbines would be visible from Ocean City 

A New Jersey-based company wants to build about 150 wind turbines, each more than 40 stories tall, in the Atlantic Ocean 12 miles from the tourist-packed beaches of Ocean City.

Bluewater Wind proposed a similar project last year off Delaware, which could be the nation’s first offshore wind farm if it receives state and federal approvals.

The developers presented the broad outlines of their concept for Maryland’s coast yesterday during a closed-door meeting with members of the state Public Service Commission. No written proposal has been submitted, but company officials said a wind farm would cost about $1.6 billion.

The firm has also met with Gov. Martin O’Malley’s office and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which has started studying the potential impact on birds and fish.

Peter D. Mandelstam, president of Bluewater Wind, said the 404-foot-tall turbines would be small but visible from Ocean City’s beaches, although hard to see in a summer haze.

“On a perfectly clear day, they will be appear to be half the size of your thumbnail and the thickness of a toothpick,” said Mandelstam, whose company is owned by Babcock & Brown, an Australian investment bank and wind power developer.

He said Ocean City’s millions of beach-goers wouldn’t be able to hear the whirling blades, and the impact on migrating birds would be minimal. The wind turbines could churn out enough electricity for 110,000 homes without any of the greenhouse gas pollution that contributes to global warming, Mandelstam said.

The project would be subject to approval by the U.S. Department of the Interior because the turbines would be in federal waters. And approval would be needed from Maryland agencies to bring power cables ashore.

“It’s an intriguing idea, and we look forward to learning more about the project,” said O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.

Backed by federal subsidies, wind farms have been popping up across the U.S. in recent years – although the nation’s electricity supply from wind remains less than 1 percent of the total.

Most wind farms have been built in the wide-open farmland of the Midwest. Some have also been built in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and two have been proposed for Western Maryland. No wind farms have been built off America’s coasts, but Bluewater and other firms have proposed them in New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Ocean City residents expressed mixed feelings about the proposed project yesterday. Some applauded the idea of alternative energy; others objected to industrial-looking whirligigs marring romantic sunrises that are part of the city’s appeal to tourists.

“We realize the need for energy and for clean energy, so it’s something the City Council would like to hear about and be briefed on,” said Mayor Rick Meehan. “We have concerns on how it affects the environment and migratory birds, as well as the visual impact.”

Lou Gerachis, owner of Malibu’s Surf Shop on the Boardwalk, said he suspects most surfers and beach-goers would oppose the giant construction project.

“I would not be for anything I could permanently see off the coastline here – we have a beautiful beach and a gorgeous view,” said Gerachis. “You would definitely see it at sunrise, and I don’t think we should have something that affects the aesthetics of nature like that.”

Vicki Barrett, president of the Boardwalk Development Association, a merchants group, said a different developer proposed an offshore wind farm about five years ago, but that was rejected by the city. “I think the times have changed since then, and I think the community would be more receptive to it now,” said Barrett, owner of a waterfront bed-and-breakfast. “I think we’ve got to do something about our energy crisis, and I think wind turbines are quite beautiful – almost sculptural.”

A well-publicized battle continues between offshore wind developers and waterfront homeowners in Nantucket Sound. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose family has a summer home in Cape Cod, is among the opponents of the Cape Wind Project, which would be closer to shore than the one proposed in Maryland.

Maryland gets more than half of its electricity from coal-fired power plants, which emit carbon dioxide pollution that contributes to global warming, said Mike Tidwell, founder of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

“Increasingly, Marylanders are aware that sea level rise from global warming spells really big problems for our coastline, including Ocean City,” he said. “We can either do nothing, and watch 3 to 20 feet of water destroy everything in Ocean City. Or we can join states across America and countries around the world in switching to clean, renewable energy.”

Maryland passed a law three years ago requiring power companies here to buy 7.5 percent of their electricity from wind, solar, hydroelectric or other alternative sources by 2018. Now, the state receives about 1 percent of its energy from these clean sources.

Jim Lanard, a spokesman for Bluewater Wind, said that offshore turbines could help Maryland meet its legal requirement. Also helpful toward meeting the goal would be the construction of the two wind farms proposed by other developers in the mountains of Western Maryland.

“Maryland has great offshore wind potential, and we’d like to be part of the solution to the global warming and climate change issues that the country is facing,” said Lanard.

John Sherwell, manager of the power plant research program at the state Department of Natural Resources, said officials have met with Bluewater Wind and are already studying the potential impact.

Sherwell noted that the final decision on the proposal would come from the U.S. Department of the Interior. But he said the state will offer an opinion on all potential impacts on wildlife and the community, including the construction of power lines beneath the ocean floor to a connection in the Ocean City area.

The impact of the loud construction project on the ecosystem of the sea will also be studied, Sherwell said. “There is a lot of banging and crashing from the pile drivers that can affect marine life,” he said. “So there are a lot of issues to look at.”

LaWanda Edwards, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Public Service Commission, said that Bluewater officials met yesterday with three of the commission’s five members. But the discussion was not open to the public and did not violate open meeting laws, Edwards said, because the company met with two in the morning and a third separately in the afternoon. Meeting with three at a time would have required a public meeting, she said.

“The proposal that Bluewater has for Delaware is certainly very interesting,” said Edwards. “And their presentation leads us to be very optimistic, in general.”

By Tom Pelton
Sun Reporter

Baltimore Sun

12 October 2007

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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