Green Jersey

Paper: Offshore wind may be our best shot

What offshore wind looks like in Denmark. Image via Siemens.

The Asbury Park Press has an editorial today that supports further exploration of offshore wind power. It’s better than a new nuclear plant, LNG terminals or offshore oil drilling, the paper reasons.

Last week, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said it was moving toward granting sea-bottom leases to three companies that want to build offshore wind farms off the New Jersey coast. The leases would be given for site-assessment purposes — the companies would build six towers off the coast to collect environmental data and figure out whether the areas are suitable for turbines. From the Press:

Wind power… deserves a serious look. It does not contribute to global warming. Unlike coal, natural gas and nuclear, it is clean and renewable. Over time, it could generate up to one-third of the state’s energy needs. In the short term, it could replace the energy generated by a nuclear plant the size of Oyster Creek. And the economics of wind power are becoming more competitive with traditional energy sources.

Wind may or may not be “part of the answer,” the paper says, but we need to find out.