Department of Energy to invest $180 million in four offshore wind energy projects
March 8, 2012The U.S. government has announced that it will be investing $180 million in new offshore wind energy projects over the next six years.
The initiative is meant to embolden the growing alternative energy industry in the country, which is quickly becoming a major economic force. The Department of Energy believes that wind power is still an untapped resource and could bring major benefits to the country in terms of energy. Offshore wind farms in the UK and parts of Europe have proven that wind is, indeed, a powerful source of energy, and one that the U.S. government is no longer willing to ignore.
The Department of Energy will select four projects that are utilizing next generation wind technologies to fund.
These projects will all be related to offshore wind-generated electricity. The agency will also be showing off these projects to those that remain skeptical about wind energy as a whole. This will be done in the hopes of showing how far technology has come and how much progress has been made to overcome the various challenges concerning wind energy.
Together, the four wind energy projects are to generate more than 4,000 gigawatts of electricity.
Much of this energy will be funneled into the U.S. energy grid, where it will be used to power homes and businesses. The Department of Energy claims that these projects will also create new, long-lasting jobs that could help embolden the national economy.