Cape Wind – A Turning Point in Global Renewable Energy

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The World’s last bastion of climate scepticism has finally approved its first offshore wind farm.

The US federal government has approved a 130-turbine wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, named Cape Wind, that has been in the works for nearly a decade. Renewable energy proponents are celebrating the US’s decision to catch up with the rest of the world in offshore wind, but, as expected, the announcement has spurred all kinds of controversy.

The development would span 24 square miles - the same size as Manhattan, with no turbines closer than five miles off the coast. It’s a massive undertaking that would take years to realize - if it can hack through the remaining red tape, which isn’t insignificant.

The project is expected to cost over US$1 billion and generate enough power to meet 75 percent of the energy demand for the Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket region. Those in support of the project have turned these financial assumptions into a positive, arguing that the development would create hundreds of new manufacturing and construction jobs, fulfilling President Obama’s promise to create a vibrant green-collar economy.

But why is this good news for the rest of the World? Well the US has arguably the highest proportion of climate sceptics amongst its 300 million population. Eight years of George “W” Bush played to an already sceptical consumer of energy and has left the US far behind other Global regions when it comes to energy policy, notably Europe and China.

Other countries around the World had a choice, should they follow the US free-market “Consume energy and damn the rest of the World model” or the European/Chinese model of “Actively manage energy and climate and stimulate green jobs”.

Now the World largest consumer of energy and largest emitter of CO2 in absolute and relative terms has finally taken the plunge. It’s first offshore wind farm will be messy, and may not be built on time or to budget – the first one of any type of power generation never is – but it will break new ground.

Why is this different from onshore wind or solar PV, which the US has already been doing? The answer is scale.

Offshore wind is much larger in scale than any other renewable energy technology. The order of magnitude for a new offshore wind farm being planned and designed today is measures in giga-watts instead of mega-watts and the price tag is in the Billions (of Pounds, Euros, Dollars – take your pick) instead of Millions.

This puts it on the same scale as new coal, oil, gas or nuclear power plant. At this scale it become interesting to the large scale investors, and can make a substantial contribution to the demand for electricity.

From this point onwards, opponents of renewable energy can no longer point to the US and say “look, there is another way to do this”.
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