USA: 10% of Virginia's energy could come from offshore wind

An offshore wind farm could provide 10 percent of Virginia's electricity demands without interfering with Defense Department operations, a new report states. The report, issued by the state-funded Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, focuses on an area 12 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. Researchers identified 25 potential lease spots where hundreds of turbines could be installed. The energy would be sent ashore through transmission lines on the ocean bottom.

The proposal, unlike an effort to tap Virginia's coast for oil and natural gas, would not conflict with Navy training grounds or a NASA rocket range that extends from the Eastern Shore into the Atlantic Ocean. "The DOD is happy with what we proposed," said Patrick Hatcher, an Old Dominion University professor who serves as the consortium's executive director.

The report comes as the federal government, after nine years of review, approved Wednesday the nation's first offshore wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod.