The European Commission has placed offshore wind power at the heart of its plans for the next wave of EU energy legislation.

...It stressed that offshore wind can make a "significant" contribution to all three key objectives of the new energy policy - reducing climate change emissions, improving energy security and industry competitiveness.  The Commission said: "Today, the potential for offshore wind energy is largely untapped: even excluding potential deepwater deployments based on floating foundations, the potential exploitable by 2020 is likely to be some 30-40 times the current installed capacity."
Note: Click here to read this article on New Energy Focus

Cape Wind, a Massachusetts offshore wind farm under review for seven years, finished what was likely its final public hearing this week and expects to receive the last of its major regulatory decisions before year's end.

This article is reproduced in its entirety here with permission. Copyright 2008, Platts/The McGraw-Hill Companies. http://www.platts.com/Electric%20Power/Resources/

BOSTON, MA, NOVEMBER 5, 2008 – Eighty seven percent of voters in eleven Massachusetts towns in the south shore voted Yes on Question 4, a non-binding question that read:

Should the state representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of legislation that would support the development of Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound and other possible future onshore and offshore wind power developments in Massachusetts?

LIKE his uncle, his grandfather and many of their neighbors, Arie Versendaal spent decades working at the Maytag factory here, turning coils of steel into washing machines.  When the plant closed last year, taking 1,800 jobs out of this town of 16,000 people, it seemed a familiar story of American industrial decline: another company town brought to its knees by the vagaries of global trade.

Except that Mr. Versendaal has a new factory job, at a plant here that makes blades for turbines that turn wind into electricity. Across the road, in the old Maytag factory, another company is building concrete towers to support the massive turbines. Together, the two plants are expected to employ nearly 700 people by early next year.
Note: Click here to read this New York Times article

Rest assured the candidates for state and county offices in the Nov. 4 election have their energy credentials in order.

Last night at a forum on energy at Cape Cod Community College, more than a dozen candidates took turns talking about energy issues and outlining what they would do to make energy more efficient, more affordable and more green.
Note:

Click here to read this Cape Cod Times article

On October 22, 2008 E&E Publishing's ClimateWire published a profile of Cape Wind President Jim Gordon and provided an update on Cape Wind as well as other offshore wind power proposals off the east coast of the U.S. and the race among the States to be home to America's first offshore wind farm.  This article is reproduced in its entirety here with permission. Copyright 2008, E&E Publishing, LLC. www.ClimateWire.net

Sen. John Kerry said Monday that he will support the controversial Cape Wind project if it gains final environmental approval.

“My view on Cape Wind is very simple. I’m all for wind power,” Kerry said at a Patriot Ledger editorial board meeting. “If the EIS (environmental impact statement) comes back approving it, I’m all for it,” Kerry said.  Kerry was referring to a final Environmental Impact Statement about the project from the U.S. Minerals Management Service. The agency’s initial report on the project, which would put 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, was largely positive.

Note: Click here to read this Brockton Enterprise article

...A wind industry hub would encourage supply chains and assembly and bring overseas turbine manufacturers into the UK creating thousands of new jobs.

Dr Gordon Edge of the British Wind Energy Authority (BWEA) said the north-east would be a natural choice because it was on the edge of the North Sea where most of the offshore wind farms will be sited.
Note: Click here to read this article in the Telegraph

Steve D'Agostino conducted a 30-minute interview with Cape Wind Communications Director Mark Rodgers for the program Business Beat that was broadcast on October 19 on NPR's Central New England affilicate, WICN, 90.5FM.

Click here to listen to this interview via stream or podcast.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will fall woefully short of its own renewable energy targets unless the government allows wind farms to be built closer to shore, the Carbon Trust said in a report on Tuesday.  Only a quarter of the wind power capacity Britain needs to meet its target of getting 15 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 will be built unless controls on offshore turbines are relaxed to cut costs.


Note: Click here to read this Reuters article