Part I: Tiny Country May Beat Virginia to the Wind Power Punch
As of late September, Dominion Virginia Power said it still hoped to build a couple of wind turbines off Virginia Beach. The federal government has promised more than $50 million for planning and construction, but the utility could only find one company willing to build the demonstration project, and it wanted far more money than the firm was willing to pay. Dominion says it will seek a new round of bids early next year. Meanwhile, a tiny country in Europe is on track to build 150 wind turbines off its coast. Click here to read the full story.
Part II: Estonia Shows the Way to Offshore Wind
When the federal government announced it would award $47 million to Virginia for construction of an offshore wind demonstration project, officials hoped blades would be spinning by 2017, but that hope was dashed when the company got just one bid for construction – a price well above what it wanted to pay. The utility says it will try again early next year – issuing a request for bids. Meanwhile, offshore wind construction is booming in the North Sea, and now a tiny country on the Baltic is preparing to get into the game in a big way. Sandy Hausman went to Estonia to see what lessons we might learn from a country that – like Virginia – has ideal conditions for offshore wind. Click here to read the full story.