"Feds Opening Waters to Largest U.S. Offshore Wind Farm"

The federal government today will be auctioning off leases to develop wind energy in offshore waters.

"The Atlantic’s powerful bluster twirls thousands of wind turbines off the coast of Europe, sending gigawatts of renewable energy coursing into the power grid there.

Currently, there is not a single wind turbine generating even a watt of electricity in American waters as oil platforms represent the only offshore energy development in the U.S. But the race is on to change that, beginning with a landmark wind rights auction on Thursday, which aims to open a vast swath in the Atlantic off the Massachusetts coast for what could be the the first and largest offshore wind power project in the U.S.

Twelve wind energy companies will be vying Thursday to bid on the right to develop dense wind farms within 742,000 acres of federally controlled open ocean beginning about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard — the largest area off the Atlantic coast open to wind development. The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which also administers oil and gas leasing off the nation’s coastlines, expects that if those waters are fully developed with wind turbines, they could produce up to 5 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power 1.4 million homes."

Bobby Magill reports for Climate Central January 28, 2015.