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To: TimF who wrote (46378)	10/13/2010 10:30:31 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

In 20 years? (I doubt that....)

To: TimF who wrote (46378)	10/14/2010 2:35:07 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Giant Undersea Network Will Bring Offshore Wind Power to East Coast, With Google Investment By Clay Dillow Posted 10.12.2010 at 12:55 pm 13 Comments popsci.com The Atlantic Wind Connection The proposed undersea transmission cable would link offshore wind projects up and down the mid-Atlantic coast. TheGoogle Last night, Google announced that it has agreed to invest heavily in a proposed $5 billion, 350-mile power transmission backbone that would provide infrastructure for future offshore wind projects along the mid-Atlantic coast. But even with the backing of one of the world’s mightiest tech companies, various financial investment firms, and many important officials in government, the transmission line is going to be something of a technological trick. The Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) will stretch from New Jersey to Virginia, moving power up and down the shoreline to the highest capacity markets along the coast. As envisioned, it would eventually link some 6,000 megawatts worth of offshore wind turbines into the land-based transmission system, supplementing traditional power infrastructure with enough power to serve some 1.9 million households. Even before wind farms are constructed, the AWC would ferry cheaper power from southern Virginia to expensive energy markets in New Jersey. The cable itself will be copper lined with about 2 inches of insulation, and it will be big; each foot of cable will weigh about 30 pounds. To bury it in the seafloor a jet plow – a tool that shoots ocean water into the sea floor at high to pressures to blast a trench – will cut a path for the cable, which will eventually be covered over again with sediment. There are already some undersea transmission lines running off the Atlantic Coast, but this is the first line that will collect power from generators along the way. This presents a particular technological challenge. The AWC will carry direct current rather than alternating current like the onshore grid. DC is more efficient at moving power over long distances, but DC works best for point-to-point transmission rather than lines that have many inputs and outputs along the way. To make the AWC work efficiently, the system will employ a series of substations along the way that section it off into a series of direct journeys rather than long line with lots of entry and exit points. Like offshore oil platforms, these intermittent platforms will absorb the power from future wind farms and introduce it to the grid via four connection point in Virginia, Delaware, and southern and northern New Jersey, saving wind developments the trouble and expense of having to build their own connections to shore. That in turn should lower the cost of entry for offshore wind projects, hopefully spurring development along the coast and making way for a future where alternative energies make up a bigger share of America’s energy portfolio. [Google, NYT]

To: TimF who wrote (46378)	10/14/2010 2:37:35 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 71588

Lake Erie Will Host America's First Freshwater Offshore Wind Farm By Clay Dillow Posted 05.24.2010 at 5:00 pm 26 Comments popsci.com Offshore Wind An offshore farm like this Danish array will soon grace the shores of Lake Erie near Cleveland. Kim Hansen Offshore wind power is on an absolute tear. First, the U.S. approved its first offshore wind farm late last month. We also detailed the workings of a specifically designed to eat up offshore winds. And now this: GE will soon put their four-megawatt offshore monsters to use in America’s first freshwater offshore wind farm in Lake Erie. The long-term goal of generating 1,000 megawatts for Ohio by 2020, but the deployment of turbines won’t start out so ambitiously. GE has committed to producing enough infrastructure to build and maintain an initial 20-megawatt farm slated for completion by the end of 2012, though we’ll see just how quickly GE and its partner, the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo), can cut through the reams of red tape that are sure to pile up. That initial farm will spring up off the Erie shoreline close to Cleveland. The locations of future projects have yet to be determined, but wherever those projects unfold they are likely to be big. The entire scheme is based on GE’s latest-gen 4-megawatt turbine (which we detailed exhaustively in April's How It Works issue), a sizeable generator even by progressive standards – most land-bound wind turbines in places like Texas are rated for 1.5 to 2.5 megawatts, though even the very largest generally don’t run at capacity. That makes the Lake Erie Project quite an important venture, not just for proving that the next generation of turbines can hack it in the field, but also that offshore projects in interior lakes can work. If GE and LEEDCo can make their 20-megawatt farm work, we’re promised another 980 megawatts of wind energy in Ohio alone. But a success in Lake Erie would more likely open the floodgates for many, many more projects in the coming decades that could benefit many land-locked states in the upper-Midwest. [GE via Fast Company]

To: TimF who wrote (46378)	10/14/2010 2:39:47 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm Opens Today in Britain By Julie Beck Posted 09.23.2010 at 3:19 pm 53 Comments popsci.com Thanet Wind Farm courtesy Vattenfall Seven miles off the coast of Kent, 100 380-foot turbines, spanning 22 square miles and representing two years of construction, have begun to power Britain. Bearing a price tag of 780 million pounds, this is the world’s largest offshore wind farm. With the opening of this farm, Britain’s capacity to produce wind power will increase by 30 percent. At full capacity, the farm is projected to power 200,000 homes, bringing the nation one step closer to its goal of producing 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Currently it produces 3 percent. Additional turbines will be added over a four-year period, bringing the planned total for the farm to 341. But with other projects in the works, the farm may not be the world's largest for long. [BBC]