這個計畫的主要輸電纜就大概要花50億美元，Google與一家紐約的創投公司Good Energies要出資37.5%，日本的丸紅商社15%，由一家馬里蘭州的出電纜公司Trans-Elect提出並將負責工程。這個計畫看起來大膽又燒錢，工程能力，和環保都是未知的挑戰。

會選在東岸的原因是因為大西洋較淺，東岸的城市也較為密集，而且目前東岸城市的電費，北高於南，因此輸電纜建成，就算海上風力發電廠技術尚未成熟，光是把南部較便宜的電賣到北方就應該能帶來不錯的收入了。先建輸電纜，再來是海上風力電廠。設兩個點子都很不錯，ˋ至少錢花在這種建設上不是像辦世運會，花博這種活動過了就沒了，而是與人民生活息息相關的基礎建設。

可惜台灣在太平洋上，海很深。不然海底輸電纜的確是不錯的點子，至少可以避免再次發生像1999年那種729大停電了。一座高壓電纜線的電塔倒了，大半的台灣都停電。興建輸電的鐵塔及變電所時經常遭民眾以電磁波電磁波受害和安全性等理由抗爭，如果建在外海，不但少了抗爭，對國家安全也多一分保障。就風力發電機組而言，設在陸上也是有不少問題，像土地取得等，如能設在外海，就少了這個麻煩。

成本也是一大問題，但是石油的附加稅，與排碳以後也可能徵稅，而風力發電通常仰有賦稅優惠，甚至補貼，所以成本，假以時日，在先進國家或許不會有太大的差距。風力發電是可再生能源，沒有排放探，也不會造成汙染，是一種乾淨的能源。

Offshore Wind Power Line Wins Backing

By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON — Googleand a New York financial firm have each agreed to invest heavily in aproposed $5 billion transmission backbone for future offshore wind farms along the Atlantic Seaboard that could ultimately transform the region’s electrical map.

The 350-mile underwater spine, which could remove some criticalobstacles to wind power development, has stirred excitement amonginvestors, government officials and environmentalists who have beenbriefed on it.

Google and Good Energies,an investment firm specializing in renewable energy, have each agreedto take 37.5 percent of the equity portion of the project. They arelikely to bring in additional investors, which would reduce theirstakes.

If they hold on to their stakes, that would come to an initialinvestment of about $200 million apiece in the first phase ofconstruction alone, said Robert L. Mitchell, the chief executive of Trans-Elect, the Maryland-based transmission-line company that proposed the venture.

Marubeni, a Japanese trading company, has taken a 15 percent stake. Trans-Elect said it hoped to begin construction in 2013.

Several government officials praised the idea underlying the project asingenious, while cautioning that they could not prejudge the specifics.

“Conceptually it looks to me to be one of the most interestingtransmission projects that I’ve ever seen walk through the door,” saidJon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,which oversees interstate electricity transmission. “It provides agathering point for offshore wind for multiple projects up and down thecoast.”

Industry experts called the plan promising, but warned that as afirst-of-a-kind effort, it was bound to face bureaucratic delays andcould run into unforeseen challenges, from technology problems to costoverruns. While several undersea electrical cables exist off theAtlantic Coast already, none has ever picked up power from generatorsalong the way.

The system’s backbone cable, with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, equalto the output of five large nuclear reactors, would run in shallowtrenches on the seabed in federal waters 15 to 20 miles offshore, fromnorthern New Jersey to Norfolk, Va. The notion would be to harvestenergy from turbines in an area where the wind is strong but thehulking towers would barely be visible.

Trans-Elect estimated that construction would cost $5 billion, plusfinancing and permit fees. The $1.8 billion first phase, a 150-milestretch from northern New Jersey to Rehoboth Beach, Del., could go intoservice by early 2016, it said. The rest would not be completed until2021 at the earliest.

Richard L. Needham, the director of Google’s green business operationsgroup, called the plan “innovative and audacious.”

audacious    adj. willing to take risks or to do something shocking   敢於冒險的；大膽的

“It is an opportunity to kick-start this industry and, long term,provide a way for the mid-Atlantic states to meet their renewableenergy goals,” he said.

Yet even before any wind farms were built, the cable would channelexisting supplies of electricity from southern Virginia, where it ischeap, to northern New Jersey, where it is costly, bypassing one of themost congested parts of the North American electric grid while loweringenergy costs for northern customers.

Generating electricity from offshore wind is far more expensive than relying on coal, natural gasor even onshore wind. But energy experts anticipate a growing demandfor the offshore turbines to meet state requirements for greaterreliance on local renewable energy as a clean alternative to fossilfuels.

Four connection points — in southern Virginia, Delaware, southern NewJersey and northern New Jersey — would simplify the job of bringing theenergy onshore, involving fewer permit hurdles. In contrast totransmission lines on land, where a builder may have to deal withhundreds of property owners, this project would have to deal with amaximum of just four, and fewer than that in its first phase.

Ultimately the system, known as the Atlantic Wind Connection, couldmake building a wind farm offshore far simpler and cheaper than itlooks today, experts said.

Environmentalists who have been briefed on the plan were enthusiastic.Melinda Pierce, the deputy director for national campaigns at the Sierra Club,said she had campaigned against proposed transmission lines that wouldcarry coal-fired energy around the country, but would favor this one,with its promise of tapping the potential of offshore wind.

“These kinds of audacious ideas might just be what we need to break through the wretched logjam,” she said.

logjam  n. 1. a mass of logs floating on a river, that are blocking it （河面上）漂浮原木造成的阻塞   2. a difficult situation in which you cannot make progress easily because there are too many things to do （因事情太多造成的）困境，僵局

Projects like Cape Wind,proposed for shallow waters just off Cape Cod in Massachusetts, metwith fierce objections from residents who felt it would mar the oceanvista. But sponsors of the Trans-Elect project insist that themid-Atlantic turbines would have less of a visual impact.

The hurdles facing the project have more to do with administrativeprocedures than with engineering problems or its economic merit,several experts said.

By the time the Interior Department could issue permits for such a line, for example, the federal subsidy program for wind will have expired in 2012, said Willett M. Kempton, a professor at the School of Marine Science and Policy at the University of Delaware and the author of several papers on offshore wind.

Another is that PJM Interconnection,the regional electricity group that would have to approve the projectand assess its member utilities for the cost, has no integratedprocedure for calculating the value of all three tasks the line wouldaccomplish — hooking up new power generation, reducing congestion onthe grid and improving reliability.

And elected officials in Virginia have in the past opposed transmissionproposals that would tend to average out pricing across themid-Atlantic states, possibly raising their constituents’ costs.

But the lure of Atlantic wind is very strong. The Atlantic Ocean isrelatively shallow even tens of miles from shore, unlike the Pacific,where the sea floor drops away steeply. Construction is also difficulton the Great Lakes because their waters are deep and they freeze,raising the prospect of moving ice sheets that could damage a tower.

Nearly all of the East Coast governors, Republican and Democratic, havespoken enthusiastically about coastal wind and have fought proposalsfor transmission lines from the other likely wind source, the GreatPlains.

“From Massachusetts down to Virginia, the governors have signed appealsto the Senate not to do anything that would lead to a high-voltage gridthat would blanket the country and bring in wind from the Dakotas,”said James J. Hoecker, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who now is part of a nonprofit group that represents transmission owners.

He described an Atlantic transmission backbone as “a necessary piece ofwhat the Eastern governors have been talking about in terms of takingadvantage of offshore wind.”

So far only one offshore wind project, Bluewater Wind off Delaware, hassought permission to build in federal waters. The company is seekingfederal loan guarantees to build 293 to 450 megawatts of capacity, butthe timing of construction remains uncertain.

Executives with that project said the Atlantic backbone was aninteresting idea, in part because it would foster development of asupply chain for the specialized parts needed for offshore wind.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar,whose agency would have to sign off on the project, has spokenapprovingly of wind energy and talked about the possibility of anoffshore “backbone.” In a speech this month, he emphasized that thefederal waters were “controlled by the secretary,” meaning him.

Within three miles of the shore, control is wielded by the state.Nonetheless, if the offshore wind farms are built on a vast scale, theproject’s sponsors say, a backbone with just four connection pointscould expedite the approval process.

Opponents and supporters of a wind power project atWoods Hole, Mass., earlier this year. Developers of a new Atlanticproject say they hope their proposal will meet less opposition.

In fact, if successful, the transmission spine would reduce theregulatory burden on subsequent projects, said Mr. Mitchell, theTrans-Elect chief executive.

Mr. Kempton of the University of Delaware and Mr. Wellinghoff of theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission said the backbone would offeranother plus: reducing one of wind power’s big problems, variability ofoutput.

“Along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard, we tend to have storm tracks thatmove along the coast and somewhat offshore,” Mr. Kempton said.

If storm winds were blowing on Friday off Virginia, they might be offDelaware by Saturday and off New Jersey by Sunday, he noted. Yet thelong spine would ensure that the amount of energy coming ashore heldroughly constant.

Wind energy becomes more valuable when it is more predictable; ifpredictable enough, it could replace some land-based generationaltogether, Mr. Kempton said.

But the economics remain uncertain, he warned, For now, he said, thebiggest impediment may be that the market price of offshore wind energyis about 50 percent higher than that of energy generated on land.

With a change in market conditions — an increase in the price ofnatural gas, for example, or the adoption of a tax on emissions ofcarbon dioxide from coal- or gas-generated electricity — that couldchange, he said.