It's no secret that there's a lot of momentum behind offshore wind development in the United States.
In fact, earlier this year we learned that Gamesa (PINK SHEETS:GCTAP) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) launched the Offshore Wind Technology Center in Chesapeake, VA.
If you’re not familiar, Gamesa is one of the largest wind turbine suppliers on the planet, boasting more than 20,000 megawatts of installed wind turbines in 30 different countries. The company is aggressive as hell, and is looking to capitalize on new offshore wind development off the East Coast of the United States.
And reps from Northrop Grumman said they were getting into the wind turbine business because this could create a new market for the company’s shipbuilding arm.
Today, Gamesa and Northrop are now on track to test two 5 MW wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean in Q4 of 2012. Those will actually be constructed along the Outer Banks.
Essentially, from New Jersey to as far south as North Carolina, the U.S. government and state governments are looking to build an offshore wind corridor that will not only bolster clean, domestic power generation… but help create jobs and generate revenue for local economies.
Also worth noting is that last year, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced it would be investing in a new offshore wind power grid that'll serve as the transmission backbone for a string of offshore wind farms along the East Coast.
Dubbed the Atlantic Wind Connection it will be located about 10 miles offshore, stretch 350 miles from New Jersey to Virginia, and connect 6,000 megawatts of capacity – enough to power about 2 million homes.
Of course, as with anything related to renewable energy, China is also moving quickly to integrate more clean power to the mix. In fact, Ming Yang Wind Power Group (NYSE:MY) announced today that it has signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Guangdong Yudean Group for a 48 MW offshore wind power project in Zhanjiang, Guangdong. Under the times of the contract, Ming Yang will also supply sixteen 3 megawatt Super Compact Drive wind turbine generators.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, China will increase its installed offshore wind power capacity to five gigawatts by 2015 and 30 gigawatts by 2020.
The U.S. hopes to have 10 gigawatts of installed offshore wind capacity by 2020, and 54 gigawatts by 2030, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
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