From the Associated Press:
Salazar said ocean winds along the East Coast can generate 1 million megawatts of power, roughly the equivalent of 3,000 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. That’s nearly five times more than currently exist in the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department.
From the AJC’s man in D.C.:
In moves that could potentially change the Georgia coast, the Obama Administration is making wind energy development off of Atlantic states a major priority.
At the same time, it also wants to update studies to determine the viability of oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic.
At a renewable energy conference here Thursday, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar released portions of a new report that shows wind turbines off the Atlantic coastline could generate enough energy to supply one-fourth of the nation’s electricity needs.
“We know we have huge wind energy potential” in the Atlantic, Salazar told reporters afterwards. “This will be a high priority for us.”
The best potential for wind energy is probably off Delaware, Massachusetts and other Northeastern states, Salazar said.
But “there is significant potential in the Southern Atlantic states as well for wind energy,” he added.
In 2006, Georgia Tech and Atlanta-based Southern Co. discovered that wind power could be generated off the state’s coast but said it was cost-prohibitive.
U.S. CONSULATE: In Turkey attacked by gunmen; three attackers and three police officers are killed.
ATHEIST SOLDIER: Sues the U.S. military, not seeking compensation but seeking to end the religious discrimination in the military he says cost him his career.
MARSUPIAL DU JOUR: Dawsonville’s Kangaroo Conservation Center, the largest collection of kangaroos outside Australia, will be featured on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday morning.
FLIER, FLIER: Obama distances himself from Vernon Jones over Jones’ campaign flier that photoshopped the two of them together, giving the appearance that Obama has endorsed Jones, which he emphasized Tuesday that he has not.
FOREIGN AFFAIR: CBS News’ aptly titled chief foreign affairs correspondent, Lara Logan, tells the Washington Post she’s pregnant from a foreign affair she’s having with a married federal contractor she met while working in Iraq.
“HYPERMILING”: Not driving like a jackass can save gas, just don’t be a hypermiling jackass.
POT STICKLER: The lawyer for a man charged with possession of a garbage bag of pot in his trunk says that if the arresting officers — who originally pulled the man over for a broken tail light but then said they smelled pot — can’t recreate the feat in the courthouse parking lot, the charges should be thrown out for lack of probable cause.
TILTING AT WIND TURBINES: Offshore wind energy in Georgia has gained some steam after Navy and Georgia Tech research shows it may be practical, although it’s still a long way from reality.
Cost of one ton of Appalachian coal in 2007: $40
Cost of one ton of Appalachian coal in 2008: $90
Percentage of electricity price increase Georgia Power recently requested from the state Public Services Commission: 3
Number of times Georgia Power has requested rate increases during the past five years: 5
Amount Georgia Power parent company, Southern Co., spent on government lobbying in 2007: $14.5 million
Number of new coal plants planned for Georgia: 2 Amount of energy, in megawatts, the two coal power plants can produce: 2,050
Amount of energy, in megawatts, that one wind turbine among many located off the Georgia coast could generate in clean energy: 160
Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Augusta Chronicle, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Public Service Commission, Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute, OpenSecrets.org
Energy experts are saying that Georgia’s potential to become a clean-technology leader is best realized in pine ethanol. The state’s abundant arboreal resources, they argue, could give us an alternative to gasoline as well as a revenue stream.
But there’s also wind. Studies conducted by Dr. Sam Shelton of Georgia Tech discovered that breezes off the state’s coast were sufficient enough to generate power. The turbines would be located more than 12 miles from shore and beyond the horizon, far out of eyesight of landowners and beachgoers. The ocean floor is shallow enough and the proposed turbine locations are outside hurricanes’ paths and migration patterns of the endangered right whale. Problems: It costs a lot of coin to run transmission cables along the ocean floor and takes a lot of time to obtain the permits to do so.
Maybe it’ll take raising public awareness to get Georgians to tell the utilities and EMCs to invest in wind power. Maybe this European commercial showcasing how wind feels so damn lonely just blowing in this world, adrift and without a purpose, might convince us to put out the call. (Warning: There is a brief shot of Mr. Wind using his supernatural powers to momentarily lift a woman’s skirt . That sentence I just wrote makes it sound worse than it is.)
Georgia Power, the largest subsidiary of energy juggernaut Southern Company, announced that it’s accepting proposals from wind- and solar-power providers, which the company will in turn sell to its Georgia customers. Yippee! Zero-emission energy for we!
Well, possibly. According to a Georgia Power representative, there are few providers in the state, as Georgia has historically been a region not too suitable for solar- and wind-power generation. (The company did recently find, however, that wind power would be feasible along the coast.) You’ve got until October of next year to hook those pretty pinwheels in your garden up to a battery and make our world a clean and spiffy place. And yourself a buck. Click on the link above to get the 40-page proposal.
Has Georgia Power not thought about contacting the Manns? That 45-foot-tall eco-monster of a turbine they built in Grant Park might just pay off.
