Next month, Jan. 29 to be exact, the U.S. Department of Interior
plans to auction more than 742,000 acres off Massachusetts for the development of commercial wind energy. The auction is for the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area, which starts at 12 nautical miles off the coast and extends 33 nautical miles southward. West to east, it extends some 47 nautical miles. It is the largest competitive lease sale for offshore wind so far.
Part of the Obama administration's Climate Action Plan, the sale will triple the amount of land available for wind-energy projects.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a division of the Department of Energy, says full development of the area could support 4-5 gigawatts of commercial wind energy.
“Over the past five years, the Commonwealth has worked with its federal, state, tribal, industry and community partners to put the infrastructure and planning pieces in place to make Massachusetts the launch pad for the U.S. offshore wind industry,” Governor [Deval] Patrick stated. “This offshore wind energy area not only has the capacity to generate enough electricity to power half the homes in Massachusetts, but it will also create local jobs and a renewable and home-grown source of power.”
Even with the plunge in oil prices and the uncertainty over whether the fate of the federal government's production tax credit for renewable sources of energy, analysts believe 2015 will see a continuing expansion of wind energy in the United States. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, wind power generated 4.1 percent of the U.S. total in 2013. That's up from 3.5 percent in 2012.
While offshore wind installations are considerably more expensive than those built on dry land, they benefit from the fact that offshore winds are steadier. Offshore wind turbine towers, like those off Denmark, tend to be taller and have a greater generating capacity.
However, the DOE released new wind resource maps Dec. 12 that show taller on-shore wind turbines with higher hubs and longer blades can capture significantly more wind than shorter turbines. In the South, the amount of available wind for turbines only 110 meters tall is paltry. But mapping for 140-meter tall turbines shows a much greater amount of wind resources available in the region.