Va. Beach conference debates: Is wind energy in doldrums?

VIRGINIA BEACH

Almost everyone agrees that harnessing offshore wind energy in Virginia is a great idea - it's a clean, abundant, free resource. Problem is, hardly anyone can agree on just how to build, finance and properly regulate a wind farm off the coast.

There are conflicts with military training, fishing boats, cargo vessels, migrating whales and birds. There is the fact that almost every state on the Atlantic coast is racing for scarce investment dollars and government approval to get its project in the water first.

And there is a lingering political debate about whether oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic coast could still be done amid spinning offshore wind turbines, or which energy-capturing activity should be done first.

On Wednesday, more than 200 environmentalists, engineers, regulators, business executives and would-be investors crowded into the Virginia Beach Convention Center to try to find some common ground and move a Virginia project forward.

Perhaps symbolically, just as the conference got under way with coffee and the first Power Point presentation of the day, a power surge briefly knocked out electricity in a main assembly hall, spurring wry laughter amid the crowd in the suddenly darkened room.

"I think we need that offshore energy, like, now," said a grinning Clay Bernick, sustainability director for the city of Virginia Beach.

Of course, that clean energy is not coming any time soon. But, as U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a videotaped message over lunch, "the time has come to move beyond the talking stage."

The federal government has been moving slowly, given that there is no offshore wind farm operating in the United States today, though dozens exist off European coasts, and China is building them, too.

The U.S. Interior Department last year announced an initiative called "Smart from the Start," intended to streamline permitting and hasten appropriate site selections.

But as described by Cathie France, deputy director of energy policy for the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy, Virginia still is waiting for the government to release its official invitation, called a "request for information," to energy companies and investment groups asking them to signal their interest in leasing a spot off the coast.

"We're a little frustrated with Smart from the Start," France said, noting that other states have received their invitations months, even years, ago.

George Hagerman, a Virginia Tech researcher and wind expert, described the biggest quandaries facing Virginia's drive for offshore wind. They are mostly financial, he said: The cost for generating offshore wind is almost double that from natural gas and coal.

Furthermore, Virginia's typical electricity bills are 31 percent below the average bill on the East Coast and 16 percent below the national norm, he said.

In short, Hagerman said, Virginia has cheap energy today and few investors see much incentive in spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a first-time offshore project to produce wind energy that would be hugely more expensive.

Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts all are in various stages of permitting offshore wind projects. Those states also have one thing in common: they all have requirements that utilities use a certain amount of renewable energy to create electricity. They must use a certain percentage of solar, geothermal, biomass or wind energy as party of their portfolio or face a stiff fine.

Virginia, by contrast, has a voluntary renewable energy standard. Utilities here shoot for certain percentages as a no-penalty goal. But without mandatory standards, most environmentalists and many conferees argued that the state is fighting an uphill battle in enticing offshore wind development.

"Virginia could be a hub but needs policies to make the state stand out," said Michael Peck, a wind-energy consultant with the MAPA Group.

Other consultants and companies remain bullish on Virginia. They that note the state has a power station at the ready in Virginia Beach to handle offshore wind; maintains a sophisticated workforce with experience in ship repairs and maritime industries; is politically gung-ho about wind power; and is home to military bases under orders to use more green energy and burn less fossil fuel.

"A lot of people are targeting Virginia," said Charles Natale Jr., president and CEO of the ESS Group, an environmental sciences company that opened offices in Hampton in anticipation of offshore wind work.

"Other states may have moved more quickly," Natale added, "but Virginia is being efficient, and has all the things to support an industry here."

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com