Maryland Considers Legislation That May Boost Offshore Wind Energy
Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill that would require utilities in the state to purchase electricity generated at offshore wind farms built in the mid- Atlantic.
The Maryland Offshore Wind Act of 2011, to be introduced before the state’s general assembly today, would require public utilities to purchase between 400 megawatts and 600 megawatts of capacity from wind farms in federal waters off Maryland’s coastline for at least 20 years, according to an e-mailed statement from Governor Martin O’Malley’s office.
More than half of the homes in Baltimore could be powered by wind farms with total capacity of 500 megawatts, according to the statement.
That amount of wind power would increase customers’ monthly bills by about $1.44 in 2016, when wind farms may go into operation in the state, Ian Hines, a spokesman for the Maryland Energy Administration, said today in an interview.
The U.S. Interior Department identified Feb. 7 four areas, off the coasts of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Virginia, as optimal sites for offshore wind projects. The agency’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement will assess environmental risks in the areas and may issue leases to developers by the end of this year.
Maryland’s renewable portfolio standard law requires 20 percent of retail electricity sales to come from clean energy resources by 2022. An offshore wind project would generate enough clean energy to satisfy 10 percent to 15 percent of that goal, according to estimates from the Maryland Energy Administration.
The Maryland Offshore Wind Act of 2011 is House Bill 1054.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Herndon in San Francisco at aherndon2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net
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