Wind turbines considered for Georgia coast

By DAN CHAPMAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 07/09/08

Tybee Island — The wind gusted to 25 mph at the far end of this beach town’s famous pier. A dozen kite surfers below skimmed across the foam-flecked ocean. Shirtless and sunburned fishermen praised the cooling powers of the southerly breezes.

The wind proved a recreational godsend. Could it also prove a commercial success?

Georgia Tech researchers, who recently completed a study on wind energy off Tybee and Jekyll islands, think so. Southern Co., which commissioned the report, will further study whether a wind farm could generate enough electricity to be financially feasible.

Environmentalists and a smattering of Georgia tourists gushed about the possibility of a nonpolluting renewable energy source — even if the horizon is dotted with Statue of Liberty-sized turbines.

“It’d be clean energy and it wouldn’t hurt anything,” said Jack Lamb of Milledgeville, fishing for shark off the pier. “And if it was that far out, most people won’t know what it was. It’d look like a buoy.”

Wind energy’s time may not yet have come, but it’s getting closer. Electricity generated by wind jumped 45 percent last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Roughly 4.5 million U.S. households can now run on wind power.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently reported that wind turbines could generate 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030. Houston — aka Oil Patch Central — started last week using wind-powered electricity for one-fourth of its municipal power needs.

Paul Wolff, a member of the Tybee City Council and the Georgia Wind Working Group, a public-private advocacy group, said Georgians have no choice but to embrace wind energy, given the geopolitical, environmental and financial burdens of oil, coal and nuclear power.

“I am hopeful that Georgians are intelligent enough to realize our very lifestyle, which is blissful in many ways, is threatened,” he said. “We can’t continue with the philosophy that we can use energy until it’s gone. We need to take charge of our own destiny.”

Many obstacles remain before wind electrifies Georgia homes, none greater than the fact that offshore wind farms don’t exist in the United States, as they do in Europe. Construction costs have jumped 50 percent the last three years.

Congress hasn’t renewed tax credits deemed necessary to boost production, unlike Washington’s subsidized embrace of ethanol and alternative fuels. Southern Co., which owns Georgia Power, prefers coal and nuclear power. Only 4 percent of its power, mostly hydro-electric, is generated by renewable fuels.

“We need to see them looking beyond traditional energy sources and to improve on their renewable energy portfolio,” said Mary Carr of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “We need the Southern Co. to get serious about offshore wind.”

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