A St. Cloud entrepreneur dreams of building wind turbines and a desalination plant 20 miles off the Port Canaveral shoreline, simultaneously generating electricity and drinking water.

Ideally, this cluster of 50 to 100 windmills also would attract a bustling ecological habitat for fishing and diving -- and perhaps even an offshore casino.

Paul Hurley, an alternative energy researcher, has dubbed his ambitious aquatic vision Project Offland. If these turbines could generate 150 megawatts of power, he contends they could bolster the economies and water supplies of Brevard, Volusia, Orange and Osceola counties.

"One of these (windmill clusters) off of Cocoa. One off of Daytona Beach. One off of St. Augustine. One off of Jacksonville," Hurley said. "Each of those localities get tourism, the infrastructure needed to run offshore wind, and hundreds of millions of gallons of clean drinking water."

Hurley has discussed Project Offland twice with Brevard County Commissioner Chuck Nelson. He said he also pitched his
sure-to-be-costly plan to State Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and Orange County officials.

"I don't wish to patent any of the designs. I wish to make them public domain," Hurley said.

To date, no potential public- or private-sector partners have emerged. Hurley hopes to recruit a team of business leaders, then gauge interest in making the project a reality.

Messages seeking comment from Nelson and Haridopolos were not returned.

Hurley believes National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data -- particularly from instruments aboard Station 41009, a weather buoy anchored 20 miles east of Cape Canaveral -- proves that a windmill farm off the Space Coast could operate a desalination plant nine months per year.

However, George Maul, head of the marine and environmental systems department at Florida Tech, questioned Project Offland's economic viability.

"This is a region of light winds. We don't have those nice, steady winds that they have in higher latitudes," Maul said. "Most people feel this is a region that is going to be marginal, at best, at being able to create sufficient energy for the investment that's going to be made."

Maul said wind energy is more suitable in Western Europe, New England or the Great Plains. His preferred approach: Experiment using a single-turbine pilot plant off the Florida coast -- and make sure it's hurricane-resistant.

"You don't want to put a bunch of these things out there -- and have a Hugo come along and take them all out," he said.

As an added revenue stream, Hurley hopes the windmills' 150-foot seafloor pilings attract fishing, diving and sightseeing if the National Offshore Aquaculture Act passes Congress.

This act would allow commercial fish farming, via permit, in federal waters between three and 200 miles off the U.S. coast.

In March 1996, Hurley founded American Solar Technologies/Solar Dynamics, Inc., state records show. The Orlando company, which is now defunct, developed prototypes of solar-powered air conditioning units.

"After year after year of testing, I came to a realization that even in Florida, solar power really is not the solution. I saw wind as a solution for Florida -- but not shore-based wind," Hurley said.

Contact Neale at 242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com.