$6 million meteorological station will collect data for its wind farm

Bluewater Wind says it has been given the green light to put up a testing station off the Rehoboth Beach coast, which would be the first physical manifestation of its planned offshore wind farm.

Bluewater President Peter Mandelstam said Wednesday the Department of the Interior and the state of Delaware have told Bluewater it has met the requirements to construct a meteorological tower. The $6 million device will stand 100 meters above sea level, in 40 feet of water and 100 feet deep into the seabed.

It will measure wind speeds, bird flight patterns, and the impact of waves on the foundations that will hold up the turbines.

Bluewater has a signed contract with Delmarva Power supporting construction of 70 or more turbines that would generate up to 220 megawatts on the ocean tract east of Rehoboth Beach. Bluewater hopes the Delaware project will begin generating electricity by 2013.

The company hopes to expand the project to 450 megawatts, with half of the power going to government buildings and the University of Maryland. The Maryland Energy Office is collecting proposals for long-term power purchases, with service to begin in 2014.

Mandelstam said it's too late to start construction on the meteorological tower this year, but Bluewater will put it in "at the earliest possible moment," when the weather clears in spring 2010. It will take about a week to construct, weather permitting.

Meteorological towers clock wind speeds over the seasons and it is important to have them operating over the course of a full year before putting up turbines, said Walt Musial of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.

"It's a commitment to that site, it's a commitment to the project," Musial said. "If they're spending money on the project, they're committed."

The tower will be 15.4 miles east of Rehoboth, in the geographic center of the planned wind farm. It will sit between the spots for two lines of turbines, one slightly closer to land. The tower will cost more than $1 million to erect.

Before erecting the tower, Bluewater still needs Interior Department clearance under the Endangered Species Act.

The department approved four "met towers" in all, including a second one for Bluewater off the coast of New Jersey, where it hopes to construct another wind farm. The department approved two others off the coast of New Jersey for unspecified projects, Bluewater reported. Mandelstam said they are probably for developers Deepwater Wind and Fishermen's Energy.

The main existing offshore meteorological tower is six miles off the Massachusetts coast in Nantucket Sound, and has been there for more than five years ahead of the Cape Wind project.

"These are important for any project," Musial said. "It's in the critical path of the development of a wind farm. This has been one of the things that has been in the way, because the rule hadn't come out."

The tower will be close to the spot where the R.V. Russell W. Peterson liftboat was stationed to monitor bird flight patterns before it was ravaged in a storm last May, killing one of its two crewmen. Mandelstam said Bluewater was using the liftboat in lieu of the tower.

The Peterson was never replaced, and remains in the repair yard, Mandelstam said. The Coast Guard has yet to issue a final report on the accident.

The erection of the tower next spring will come a few months before the two-year anniversary of Bluewater's contract with Delmarva Power, which included a clause allowing Bluewater to pull out of the deal without penalty within two years.