{"id":546132,"date":"2010-04-28T15:20:53","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T19:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenrightnow.com\/?p=11222"},"modified":"2010-04-28T15:20:53","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T19:20:53","slug":"first-u-s-offshore-wind-farm-cape-wind-wins-federal-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/546132","title":{"rendered":"First U.S. offshore wind farm Cape Wind wins federal approval"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> By <a href=\"mailto:BKessler@greenrightnow.com\">Barbara Kessler<\/a><br \/>\nGreen Right Now<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. will soon join Europe in drawing electricity from off-shore wind power. Today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved the first off-shore wind project in the U.S., the proposed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.capewind.org\" >Cape Wind<\/a> installation planned for Cape Cod in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<p>Wind advocates and environmentalists were thrilled that the project, nearly a decade in the making, will be built. It had faced opposition from some residents, including Kennedy family members, concerned about how the wind farm will affect views. Recently, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation had recommended rejection of the project.<\/p>\n<p>But Salazar said that a careful analysis had shown the benefits outweigh the concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith this decision we are beginning a new direction in our Nation\u2019s energy future, ushering in America\u2019s first offshore wind energy facility and opening a new chapter in the history of this region,&#8221; he said in announcing the approval in Boston.<\/p>\n<p>The American Wind Energy Association, which represents wind producers and affiliated industries, responded that the decision could be an impetus for the U.S. wind businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSuch forward-thinking decisions are necessary for the U.S. to realize the many environmental and economic benefits of offshore wind,\u201d said American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong>As the first U.S. offshore wind installation, Cape Wind will be precedent setting. But it will benefit from two decades of offshore wind development in Europe, Bode said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, American manufacturers have announced plans to build factories in Europe to service the robust offshore wind industry there. With policy support in the America we can incent(ivize) that new manufacturing sector to build here,\u2019\u2019 Bode said.<\/p>\n<p>Frances Beinecke, president of the NRDC, also praised Salazar for green lighting the project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States can be a world leader on clean energy, and offshore wind power has enormous potential to help us get there,&#8221; Beinecke said. &#8220;This is a major victory for America\u2019s clean energy future \u2013 and will help ramp up the U.S. offshore wind industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cape Wind needed federal approval to move ahead with the installation, which will be located about five miles off shore in Nantucket Sound and is projected to supply enough electricity for about 400,000 residents in the region. The project will include 130 turbines to produce 420 megawatts of power.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last week, the wind industry association in Great Britain announced that it had reached 1 gigawatt of power from offshore wind as a new facility began operating. The UK is the world leader in the offshore wind sector with installed wind farms providing energy for 700,000 homes, the\u00a0 industry group Renewable UK (formerly BWEA) reported.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 9pt; font-family: 'Helvetica';\">Copyright \u00a9 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Barbara Kessler Green Right Now The U.S. will soon join Europe in drawing electricity from off-shore wind power. Today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approved the first off-shore wind project in the U.S., the proposed Cape Wind installation planned for Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Wind advocates and environmentalists were thrilled that the project, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-546132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}