Earth Equity News

States Leaders and Industry Forming Offshore Wind Collaborative. By Evan Lehmann, ClimateWire, September 9, 2009. "Plans are brewing to promote a network of offshore wind farms all along the East Coast connected by a transmission 'spine' and shared shipping ports where local turbines will embark for deepwater power fields over the horizon. A unique collaborative will emerge this fall that aims to temper the fierce competition among seaside states racing to build the first -- or second and third -- offshore project into a national effort to construct a whole fleet of them. Officials in coastal states and industry leaders are organizing the group, which aims to provide an influential voice for the nation's infant offshore effort. The group will focus on cooperation. Shared facilities like manufacturing 'headquarters' and maintenance stations could surface to give the offshore industry -- not single farms -- a foothold in North America. Ships and standards are needed. So are new transmission lines and federal cash for the development of cheaper and better turbines... The U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative, as the group is called, is inviting industry leaders, environmentalists and others to join its board of directors. Officials from clean-energy offices in states along the East Coast and the Great Lakes are 'on board' to provide technical expertise... Texas and California are also expressing support for the program. The group will formally unveil itself this fall."