A major electricity transmission project to boost offshore wind energy along the ...

A major electricity transmission project to boost offshore wind energy along the Mid-Atlantic Coast of North America, the Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC), has been announced by a group led by transmission company Trans-Elect, reports the US Department of Energy’s EERE newsletter. If built, the project will help create thousands of jobs, improve consumer access to clean energy sources, and increase the reliability of the region’s existing power grid. When completed, the project could connect 6,000 MW of offshore wind power and could be expanded to accommodate additional offshore wind energy as the US wind industry develops further. The use of high-voltage direct current technology would allow for easier integration and control of multiple wind farms, avoiding the electrical losses associated with more typical high-voltage alternating current lines. With this backbone in place, larger wind farms could connect to offshore power hubs farther out to sea. These power hubs will in turn be connected via sub-sea cables to the strongest, highest capacity parts of the land-based transmission system. The Mid-Atlantic region offers more than 60,000 MW of offshore wind potential in the relatively shallow waters of the outer continental shelf, says the DOE. Meanwhile, the US Department of Interior and Cape Wind Associates have signed the nation’s first lease for commercial wind energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf. The leased area covers 25 square miles on Horseshoe Shoals in Nantucket Sound, off the coast of Massachusetts. Cape Wind is planning to build 130 wind turbines in the leased area to generate up to 468 MW of wind power.