Jul 30, 2008 7:07 pm US/Eastern
Wind Power Could Change Ocean City's Look
OCEAN CITY, Md. (WJZ) ―
A proposal to bring cleaner energy to Maryland could bring a new look off the coast of Ocean City.
A New Jersey-based company wants to build a wind park with hundreds of turbines spinning above the ocean water.
Mary Bubala has a look at the proposal and what it would look like from shore.
Some say the United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind. They've got oil, but we've got tradewinds that could revolutionize the way we get energy to power our homes.
Maryland happens to be in "the zone" and companies are clamoring for approval to harness our wind off the coast of Ocean City.
"The first thing is it's clean, renewable and emission free. The second thing is our fuel, the wind, is always free. There's never going to be a charge for using wind energy," said Jim Lanard with Bluewater Wind.
Bluewater Wind is a company that wants to build windparks similar to ones in Europe.
Lanard says wind turbines could supply the Mid-Atlantic region with enough energy to power hundreds of thousands homes.
The company has inked a deal with Delaware to put windmills 11.5 miles off the coast. They hope the park will be operational by 2012.
It wants to get Maryland on board, too. Their plan is to set up 150 turbines in the water. They'd be located 12.2 miles off the coast of Ocean City.
Each turbine stands 256 feet tall. The blades alone are 140 to 150 feet long. And that's just above the water. Underneath the water, steel poles extend 75 feet downward.
Currently, there are no offshore windparks in the U.S. But there are 28 parks in Europe. Many people there say that you can barely see them from the shore.
"I don't think they're really bad looking," said Kate Frank, a tourist in Ocean City. "I've been to Europe and they look great."
But what if people don't like them here?
"It's worth the sacrifice to have that energy," said Dorthy Meekins, a tourist in Ocean City.
Bluewater understands convincing people Ocean City's horizon will not be compromised is important. They're working hard to give people an idea of what it would look like
Standing on the beach in Ocean City, they'd barely be noticeable, according to Lanard.
"At that distance, the wind turbines look about half the size of your thumbnail and as thin as a toothpick on a clear day," Lanard said. "On hazy summer days, they'd be very hard to see. Our analysis shows that on about 30 percent of the summer days, you won't see them at all."
And what would they look like from a high-rise Ocean City hotel? Hardly visible, Lanard said.
"When you look at some of these ships that you see on the horizon, they may only be seven or eight miles," he said. "We're going another 50 percent further than that."
Bluewater says they have analyzed just about everything in its quest to bring a windpark to Maryland. That includes the impact on marine life and how well the turbines would fare in a hurricane.
The turbines would be built and installed totally with private investments. But it would require a commitment from Maryland to buy the energy produced.
So far, Governor Martin O'Malley has given the green light.
"Delaware's been ahead of us in understanding that there's a tremendous wind resource off the Atlantic coast," O'Malley said. "It is our hope now with Delaware having done its due diligence that we might somehow find a way to partnership with them to piggyback on their efforts -- to grow that windmill site -- so that we can both enjoy economies of scale for electricity consumers in Maryland."
And on Capital Hill, the windparks are catching momentum.
Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens testified to Congress that windmills are the solution to our nation's energy crisis.
Pickens is building a billion dollar windpark in Texas.
"With almost 70 percent of our dependency on foreign oil, we've gotten ourselves into a trap," he said on Capitol Hill. "Who did it to us? We did."
And now, some are trying to get us out. They want Americans to become dependent on a free energy source -- the wind.
Maryland is positioned to play a major role because of its position on the map.
Bluewater Wind had a preliminary meeting with Ocean City's mayor and City Council. Right now, the city is looking for more information before making any decision on whether to back the proposed Maryland windpark.
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