An out-of-the Blue wind-power plan

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http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_kleekamp13_04-13-08_519KUVO_v15.39d3efb.html

Charles W. Kleekamp/Christopher Stimpson: An out-of-the Blue wind-power plan

01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, April 13, 2008

CHARLES W. KLEEKAMP CHRIS STIMPSON

SANDWICH

THE EXCITEMENT on Cape Cod was palpable before recent Minerals Management Service hearings on the Cape Wind project, and not just at the thought of dueling minstrels at the microphone. To the unbounded joy of the Nantucket Sound wind-farm opponents on stage, the deus ex machina of Blue H USA appeared from the wings with perfect timing to state that you can have wind power without seeing it.

Except that this can’t happen for some time, even though Ray Dackerman, Blue H USA’s general manager, has said, “It’s here now,” referring to their technology of a floating wind farm 23 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. And Cape Wind’s foes embraced the idea as an alternative to Cape Wind.

Some background is in order. Offshore wind farms support their turbines on fixed hollow towers called monopoles. Total installed cost, including the turbine, is $2 million to $3 million per megawatt, based on European experience with 15 offshore wind farms.

In 2002, Norway’s Norsk Hydro Oil & Energy started a pilot project called “Hywind.” The concept, to float a 3-megawatt turbine in 400 feet of water tethered with cables to anchors, would cost over $7 million per megawatt.

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