Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2013

WASHINGTON, DC — The federal government has finally taken steps to support wind power by leasing federal waters off the Atlantic coast for large wind farms. The first lease, 164,750 acres of federal waters off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, could produce as much as 3,400 megawatts of electricity — enough to power more than one million homes. On July 31, 2013, Deepwater Wind of Providence, Rhode Island was awarded the first lease for offshore wind development by the Interior Department. According to Tommy Beaudreau, director of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, “This sale marks a really historic moment in the clean energy future of this country.” The second lease sale is slated for the coastal waters of Virginia. On Sept. 4, Interior will auction 112,799 acres. The area, to be sold under a single lease, is expected to power 2,000 megawatts of wind generation — enough to electrify 700,000 homes. A federal undersea transmission line called “Atlantic Wind Connection” will eventually carry power from these offshore turbines to onshore distribution centers. — PVB

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2013

Since any wind turbine is a good one, we put this in the good news column. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has contracted with Germany’s Siemens Corp. to build a wind farm that will provide 60 percent of the electricity for its Pantex H-bomb facility in the Texas Panhandle. The Energy Department uses the complex for nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly. Sited in a wind-rich area of West Texas, the wind power is expected to save the government an average of $2.9 million a year over the 20-year contract period. Construction is set to begin in December. — Greentech Media, Aug. 6, 2013