Originally published January 20 2006
Atlantic City erects windmills to produce 7.5 megawatts a year
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The newly erected Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm hopes to turn New Jersey’s coastal breezes into electricity for more than 2,500 homes.
Betting on energy that Mother Nature produces for free, the county utilities authority and a private developer formally dedicated New Jersey's first "wind farm" Monday, hoping to provide clean, renewable electricity for a sewage plant here and homes and businesses elsewhere.
The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm will begin producing about 7.5 megawatts electricity a year later this month from its site at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority's wastewater treatment plant.
That's enough energy to provide electricity to about 2,500 homes.
The $12 million project, which was underwritten with $3.5 million in state aid, is aimed at harnessing winds blowing in off the ocean at 15 to 25 miles per hour and relaying the power to the sewage plant and to the PJM power grid system that serves Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, officials said.
Made of steel, each turbine tower is powered by three 130-foot long Fiberglas blades that are connected to rotors that power a generator and send the electricity to a transformer.
The towers, which are 15 feet across at the base, are designed to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds, according to the New Jersey Bureau of Public Utilities.
The project is the nation's first coastal wind farm, according to Ellen Lutz, regional director for the U.S. Department of Energy, who was among the speakers Monday at a brisk outdoor dedication ceremony.
"New Jersey is again leading the nation in clean energy investment," said Jeanne Fox, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which provided the public funding under a state clean energy incentive program.
New Jersey residents who want to support the project can buy energy from a new "CleanPower Choice Program" sponsored by the state, Fox said.
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