United States Grants First Ever Wind Farm Licenses

The United States recently announced the first ever licenses for offshore wind farms. Five different leases were given to four different companies last week. The wind energy development would occur offshore of New Jersey and Delaware. The farms would be placed along the Outer Continental Shelf.

Unfortunately, until this point there have been no wind farms built in the United States. There have been numerous proposals of such farms, but none have been built as of yet. These leases are allowing for companies to attain information to determine the future of wind farms in particular areas. Meteorological towers will be placed in the proposed areas, anywhere from 6-18 miles offshore.

The companies given leases were: Bluewater Wind New Jersey; Bluewater Wind Delaware; Fishermen’s Energy of New Jersey; and Deepwater Wind (granted two leases). The entirety of the information attained from the meteorological towers will be used by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service in order to determine the placement of the wind farms.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar stated: “We are entering a new day for energy production in the United States — a time of clean energy from renewable domestic sources on our Outer Continental Shelf. Other nations have been using offshore wind energy for more than a decade.”

Delaware is expected to be able to produce up to 5,286 megawatts of energy. This amount of energy could power 1.2 to 1.5 million homes. In addition, New Jersey is hoping to become a leader in wind energy. The state is hoping to have 3,000 megawatts of offshore wind power by the year 2020.