The Cape Wind Project: Wind Farming at the Expense of Nature?
Posted on 10. Jun, 2010 by keith in Environmental Impact
When we think of controversial energy production, we typically think of petroleum products and various technologies that don’t meet the current demand for energy efficient design. However, given the right situation, even the greenest forms of energy production can leave us divided about their positive nature; a perfect example of which can be seen in the ongoing debate about whether the Cape Wind project, which calls for 130 wind turbines to be located roughly five miles off the Cape Cod coast in Nantucket Sound, is a boon for environmental preservation.
Proponents of the Cape Wind project cite its ability to lessen the nation’s dependence on eco unfriendly power sources, a benefit that seems especially crucial in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. But the project’s detractors are quick to point out its negative impact on the native bird life of Cape Cod, as well as its detraction from a coastal scene whose pristine-ness has survived the industrial age. The late senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) whose family compound overlooks Nantucket Sound was a strong proponent of this view.
Despite its inevitable pluses and minuses, the Cape Wind Project, which is set to become the first offshore wind farm in North America, is ultimately a matter of how the nation wishes to invest its public energy technology for the foreseeable future. While energy efficient retrofitting to homes and building helps to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint, it does not address how electricity is generated in the first place. When it begins operation in 2012, the Cape Wind project is expected to generate power for roughly 150,000 Massachusetts homes, fulfilling a crucial role in Massachusetts Governor Deval L. Patrick’s plan to generate 20 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.
For more information: The Cape Wind Project
