A New Jersey-based company wants to build about 150 wind turbines, each more than 40 stories tall, in the Atlantic Ocean 12 miles from the tourist-packed beaches of Ocean City.
Bluewater Wind proposed a similar project last year off Delaware, which could be the nation's first offshore wind farm if it receives state and federal approvals.
The developers presented the broad outlines of their concept for Maryland's coast yesterday during a closed-door meeting with members of the state Public Service Commission. No written proposal has been submitted, but company officials said a wind farm would cost about $1.6 billion.
The firm has also met with Gov. Martin O'Malley's office and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, which has started studying the potential impact on birds and fish.
Peter D. Mandelstam, president of Bluewater Wind, said the 404-foot-tall turbines would be small but visible from Ocean City's beaches, although hard to see in a summer haze.
"On a perfectly clear day, they will be appear to be half the size of your thumbnail and the thickness of a toothpick," said Mandelstam, whose company is owned by Babcock & Brown, an Australian investment bank and wind power developer.
He said Ocean City's millions of beach-goers wouldn't be able to hear the whirling blades, and the impact on migrating birds would be minimal. The wind turbines could churn out enough electricity for 110,000 homes without any of the greenhouse gas pollution that contributes to global warming, Mandelstam said.
The project would be subject to approval by the U.S. Department of the Interior because the turbines would be in federal waters. And approval would be needed from Maryland agencies to bring power cables ashore.
"It's an intriguing idea, and we look forward to learning more about the project," said O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.
Backed by federal subsidies, wind farms have been popping up across the U.S. in recent years - although the nation's electricity supply from wind remains less than 1 percent of the total.
Most wind farms have been built in the wide-open farmland of the Midwest. Some have also been built in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and two have been proposed for Western Maryland. No wind farms have been built off America's coasts, but Bluewater and other firms have proposed them in New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
