With less than 10 days left in April, wind energy officials, electricity companies and   environmentalists in Massachusetts are waiting with baited breath to see if US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gives the green light to America’s first offshore wind farm.

The awarding of a federal permit to Cape Wind to build a 130-turbine project in Nantucket Sound on the east coast would signal a new phase for the successful development of wind power in the US.
Much is also at stake for the broader environmental movement as emissions-free offshore wind farms have the potential of mitigating climate change while creating thousands of well-paying jobs and generating new avenues of much-needed green electricity.

According to Cape Wind, the 130 wind turbines will produce up to 420 MW of clean, renewable energy. In average winds, the Boston company says, the finished project will be able to provide Cape Cod and surrounding islands with 75% of their electricity needs.

Salazar, who visited the Middelgrunden offshore wind farm while attending the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, has said he would make a decision on Cape Wind by the end of April.
Meanwhile, in another country on the same continent, a Canadian enterprise has recently become the first offshore wind farm in all of North America.
Earlier this month, Windstream Energy announced it had been awarded a feed-in tariff contract by the Ontario Power Authority to develop Canada’s first offshore wind site.

In a press release, Windstream said the 300 MW site is located west of Wolfe Island, which is in Lake Ontario near the fabled Saint Lawrence River.
Wolfe Island is, as the press release points out, one of the windiest places in Ontario.

As Windstream official Mark Bell noted: “Off-shore wind power has been growing at a tremendous rate in Europe because of the steady, reliable winds that occur off-shore.  These advantages are now being recognized in North America.”

Perhaps Salazar has also recognised the many benefits of offshore wind.