The Winds of Change - Oceana USA
Home / Blog / The Winds of Change

December 11, 2009

The Winds of Change

BY: jsavitz

This is Jackie’s fifth dispatch from Copenhagen. Check out the others here. -Emily

In his speech here in Copenhagen, Secretary of the Interior Salazar said that the United States could generate 20% of its electricity from wind by 2030, and we at Oceana want to see that become reality.

After all, it’s part of shifting to a clean energy economy, which is the only way to stop ocean acidification. As I’m writing this from Denmark, this country is already 20 years ahead of those aspirations. Danes already get 20% of their electricity from offhshore wind… and climbing. Forget 20 and 30% goals, it’s numbers like 85% that play a prominent role in Denmark’s mid-term goal-setting.
 
So it only seemed appropriate for Oceana’s team to visit one of these offshore sites while we were in Copenhagen. We went with Energy Futures to the Middlegrunden wind farm. This single array of 20 wind-generating units produces 40 MW of electricity, which may seem small, but as we photographed it, we could see more, larger arrays in the general area. All of those wind installations add up to 20% of power production, and ultimately the beginning of the end of acidification and all of our other climate change woes.
 
The wind turbines didn’t make any noise, and they really were kind of photogenic, though it was a cloudy day.  We didn’t think they spoiled the view in the least, especially considering what a traditional power plant would have looked like next door (by the way, there was a waste-incinerating power generating plant, right next store and that was ugly. 

I was glad to hear that Secretary Salazar, a supporter of renewable energy, toured the same site the day before. Hopefully that will be one of the ways this summit helps us to turn the climate change ship around.