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Wind power industry continues offshore push in U.S.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) recently continued its push for clean energy and more emphasis on its offshore wind siting policies.

Christopher Long, an experienced energy policy crafter in Rhode Island, will serve AWEA as the Manager of Offshore Wind and Siting Policy, working as a lead staff member and advocate on offshore wind issues.

His work will include staffing the association’s Offshore Wind Working Group and acting as the liaison to the Offshore Wind Development Coalition, which AWEA helped launch in 2010. He was prominent in the numerous sessions regarding the offshore wind business opportunity at WINDPOWER 2011, the world’s largest wind energy conference, held in Anaheim, Calif.

In addition, Long will assist AWEA on siting issues including interactions with wildlife, sound and visual impacts, and related permitting issues.
One of Long’s past primary responsibilities was energy policy including the development of offshore wind energy projects, and he was appointed to represent Rhode Island in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium.

Long was also a fellow in the New England Clean Energy Council’s Leading Clean Energy Ventures program at the Boston University School of Management, which focused on innovation, venture formation, technology commercialization and job creation in the clean energy economy.

Because of high electricity costs and the close proximity of abundant offshore wind resources to major population centers, offshore wind can provide cost-competitive electricity to our nation’s coastal regions and will help to stimulate economic development, diversify our energy supply, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The association considers 2011 to represent a significant milestone year for wind power, with several major developments and coordinated strategic plans for an offshore wind industry in the United States.

Commercial-scale off-shore wind turbines have been in use in Europe to help provide power to communities facing high-energy costs, or those that encounter less wind on land. Wind turbines in the ocean generally encounter a steady, stronger wind stream than land-based turbines, which have to rely on power generators in many cases.


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