Fracking, economy slow developing SC offshore wind

Fracking, economy slow developing SC offshore wind by Bruce Smith, Associated Press, September 13, 2012, Canadian Business
“With the advent of hydraulic fracturing and the new discovery of natural gas, some of the alternative and renewable energies have taken a little bit of a back seat because the need that was pressing a few years ago is not there today,” he said. But natural gas prices will eventually go up, he said. And South Carolina, with wind turbines being manufactured in Greenville and the Clemson University Wind Turbine Drive Train Test Facility being built in North Charleston, could be a leader in wind energy, Campbell said. “These facilities here, the wind, the reputation the state has as for being a low-cost manufacturing area, and the port make it an ideal location for the industry to grow and service the Atlantic seaboard, which has the largest potential for offshore wind,” said Nicholas Rigas, the renewable energy director for Clemson’s Restoration Institute in North Charleston. He said the test facility’s role was recently expanded to test not just turbines but their electrical systems as well. Chris Canevale of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy says South Carolina has the second-largest wind resource on the East Coast. “Our analysis shows South Carolina could install 35 gigawatts of offshore wind generation — more capacity than is already used in the entire state and enough to power 7.8 million homes,” he said. David Carr of the Southern Environmental Law Center said wind energy is the largest source of clean energy in the Southeast.