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 The South Carolina Energy Office (SCEO) was awarded $109,000 recently by the federal government to help generate market acceptance for offshore wind energy development in South Carolina and Georgia. The SCEO will collaborate with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority, utilities and other in-state partners.
The project will focus specifically on an outreach effort educating the public on wind energy potential. It will also provide technical assistance on wind policy options, aid economic development efforts and encourage collaboration between state and regional partners, utilities and trade associations. State and federal officials believe that a concerted, multi-faceted effort from various statewide stakeholders will be necessary to obtain public support for offshore wind energy development along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. “Development of renewable energy is not only important for South Carolina’s environment, it could also lead to a new offshore wind economy that creates jobs and enhances South Carolina’s renewable energy infrastructure,” said John Clark, director of the SCEO. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected 53 new wind energy projects, including the one proposed by the SCEO and its partners, for federal funding in early May. These projects will help begin to address market and deployment challenges identified in a DOE report which found that the U.S. possesses affordable wind energy resources in excess of those needed to generate 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs. The report also identified major challenges including: investment in a national transmission system; larger electric load balance areas and better regional planning; reduction in wind turbine capital costs; improvement of turbine performance; siting and environmental issues; and workforce development. (Images provided by Wikipedia.)
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