LITTLE ROCK — The federal government is poised to auction to wind farm developers 2,434 square miles of the continental shelf in the Atlantic Ocean, which would allow wind farms to sprout 10 miles off the shores of six states, from Massachusetts to Virginia.
Extensive efforts are under way to avoid the fiasco of the first proposed offshore wind farm in U.S. waters. That 24-square mile project off the coast of Cape Cod unleashed a fierce decade long battle that still lingers in the courts. Although Europe has had offshore wind farms for many years, the United States remains without even one.
The plan to auction leases to offshore wind-farm developers represents an enormous commitment to a potentially vast new industry.
Much is at stake: Wind turbines in the Atlantic alone could generate more than 1,000 gigawatts of power, an amount equal to the country’s current total energy generating capacity, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the Interior Department.
The area to be leased is about the size of Delaware. Included are 125 square miles off the coast of Maryland, 161 square miles off Delaware and 176 square miles off Virginia. Leases will also be auctioned off the coast of New Jersey and Rhode Island, but the lion’s share - 1,161 square miles - is off Massachusetts. The auction is planned before the end of this year; an exact date hasn’t been set.
The legal battles and political wrangling over the relatively tiny Cape Wind project seem never-ending. This time, however, as the federal government tries to jump-start a homegrown, renewable energy source, it is anticipating and trying to address in advance every possible objection.
“There were many lessons learned from Cape Wind. Try not to build too close to billionaires that like to go sailing in Nantucket Sound was one of them,” said Jim Lanard, president of the Offshore Wind Development Coalition, an organization that represents eight major developers.
His comment refers to the fierce resistance to Cape Wind funded in large part by oil heir billionaire William Koch, who owns a home in Cape Cod. Opposition created strange bedfellows, namely Koch and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Koch, who has bankrolled conservative efforts and candidates to oppose the Democratic Party’s environmental protection initiatives, this time helped finance an alliance that, along with objecting to the higher cost of energy generated by wind turbines, cited environmental concerns.
The challenges by opponents of Cape Wind illuminated a number of concerns about wind farms, including spoiled views and potential hazards to birds, marine life and underwater archaeological sites.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, through a variety of studies, is anticipating those issues as part of its “Smart from the Start” leasing program.
The view of wind farms from land - perhaps the most contentious issue of Cape Wind - has been the easiest to address. The areas to be auctioned all start more than 10 miles offshore, as opposed to the five miles set for Cape Wind.
In addition to incorporating lessons learned with Cape Wind, the agency is grappling with the legacy of a poorly situated land-based wind farm in California that has killed thousands of raptors, souring some environmentalists on wind power.
Before opening offshore plots to wind farms - the total area is more than 1.5 million acres - the government is spending millions to study the distribution and behavior of such federally protected migratory species as red knots, roseate terns and piping plovers, as well as of diving birds, which forage on the continental shelf.
By the end of March, 14 redthroated loons, 11 surf scoters and six northern gannets had been captured and surgically implanted with satellite transmitters to determine the habitat of these diving birds. The study is part of a $1.4 million project being carried out by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Cape Wind really helped focus attention on what we didn’t know and what we needed to know for offshore wind in order to estimate risk,” said Taber Allison, director of research at the American Wind and Wildlife Institute, a partnership of conservation organizations and wind industry companies. Allison is also an adviser to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s outer continental shelf scientific committee and formerly a vice president at Mass Audubon, which endorsed Cape Wind after three years of survey and tracking of terns and long-tailed ducks in Nantucket Sound.
“The challenge for BOEM is they’re dealing with an area that’s far larger and for which we have very little data,” he said. “We don’t have armies of birders offshore.”
European experience with wind turbines has revealed little risk of collision with seabirds but possibly some habitat displacement. To be safe, the bureau is trying to stay out of the birds’ way. The 1,161-square-mile leasing area near Massachusetts, announced in May, was shrunk from more than 3,000 square miles in the past year in deference to longtailed ducks, which forage in the area, as well as to commercial fishing interests.
“They appear to be very responsive to the interests of the fishermen,” said Eric Hansen, a third-generation scalloper out of New Bedford, Mass. He added, however, that “there’s always the question about whether they made the area so large to make it look good when they knew they were going cut it down anyways, but on the surface it’s been very good.”
Under water, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has been evaluating more subtle factors. Studies funded by the agency are exploring the effect on sharks and rays of electromagnetic fields generated by undersea cables that will connect the turbines. It is also evaluating the effects of pile-driving and turbine noise on whales, sea turtles and fisheries.
“We’re really looking at everything from A to Z,” said Mary Boatman, environmental studies chief at the bureau’s office of renewable energy programs.
Business, Pages 19 on 07/30/2012