"Once you include the blade, that's well over 800 feet tall, that's almost 2-and-a-half times the height of the largest building in Ocean City, so these are significant structures that are going to be placed off our coastline," Meehan said. 

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland

We are writing you in regards to the Board of Zoning Appeals Hearing (BOZA) scheduled Oct. 9, involving Dan’s Mountain Wind Force (Case No. 942 and 943 remanded).

General Maryland

“Now, we understand that the developers are proposing to install 12 megawatt towers approaching 500 feet in height,” the town’s letter to Hogan reads. “In order for a structure that large to be invisible from Ocean City, they would need to be located at least 33 miles from our coast. The visual impact and the associated negative affect on tourism, property values and the environment of these giant structures, now more than twice the height of the tallest high-rise in Ocean City and allowed within 10 miles of our shore cannot be understated.”

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland

“With the introduction of 12 MW, it is going to be the biggest machine ever deployed — the most powerful machines in the world.” The new units are bigger in megawatts generated and capacity and rotor diameter, he said. The GE turbine has a rotor diameter of 220 meters (722 feet). Each blade is 107 meters (351 feet) long, sweeping a total area of 38.000 square meters (409,000 square feet), according to Ørsted.

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland New Jersey

Construction on the 328-foot tall meteorological tower 14 miles off the coast is in full swing. 

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland

Throughout the process, the town of Ocean City has supported the US Wind project in general, but has strongly opposed the placement of any turbines within 26 miles of the resort coast, or the distance from which town officials believe the massive turbines would not be visible from the Ocean City shoreline. 

General Maryland

Maryland enacted into law on May 22 a commitment to add 1,200 MW of offshore wind to its 50% clean energy goal by 2030

Offshore Wind Safety USA Maryland

After listening to more than half a dozen Walkersville residents, the applicant and county staff, Frederick County Council members voted to deny a request for rezoning for a proposed solar array in Walkersville.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People Maryland

Before taking public comment, council members questioned the applicant about the array, and expressed concern that it didn’t meet benchmarks under the county’s current solar ordinance. Some of those included that the property is composed of 100 percent prime farmland soils, and the project footprint exceeds the 10 percent threshold of tillable acreage, according to a staff report from the county’s Planning Department.

Zoning/Planning Maryland

Offshore wind energy is not a new prospect to Delaware.

Offshore Wind Impact on People Delaware Maryland

Offshore Wind Maryland

The town’s officials feel very strongly that this project was misrepresented to them because the size of the wind turbines has increased since the initial proposal, he said. The Maryland Public Service Commission may choose to rehear Ocean City’s case due to these material changes, he said. 

General Maryland

These wind turbines, standing at 643 feet with red lights atop each tower in the latest proposal would be visible from the beaches of Ocean City and Assateague Island National Seashore,” he said. “The wind turbines, as currently proposed, will reduce property values, jeopardize the safety of maritime travel and pose a threat to Ocean City’s commercial fishing and tourism industries.”

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland

Asserting “our view is not for sale,” resort officials recently rejected an olive branch of sorts from US Wind that could have provided free electric power and other concessions to Ocean City in exchange for relaxing its opposition to the distance of the offshore wind turbines.

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland

Ocean City officials ...have asked the Public Service Commission to reconsider the project because of what they call a major increase in the proposed turbines’ height, from 200 feet to about 370 feet. A commission spokeswoman said ... its chairman has the power to reconsider a project if it has been revised significantly.

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland

A massive offshore wind development off Maryland's Atlantic coast could put marine life in danger and should undergo further study before construction starts, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris says.

General USA Maryland

Because of the relative unknowns, U.S. Congressman Andy Harris (R-1-Md.), who represents Ocean City and the Eastern Shore, has successfully attached an amendment to the federal fiscal year 2019 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill, which would order the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study the effects of offshore wind projects on marine mammals and fish as well as the need for any mitigation measures. The amendment was authored by Harris and was passed by the committee.

Offshore Wind USA Maryland

OCEAN CITY — For the first time in the prolonged battle over the distance of the proposed wind turbines off the coast of Ocean City, resort officials are getting tangible support from residents and visitors characterized this week as the “sleeping giant.”

Impact on Views Offshore Wind Maryland

Anne Grealy, FirstEnergy’s executive director of state affairs, told the House Economic Matters and Senate Finance committees last week that the cost of buying renewable energy credits to meet the elevated standard would raise the cost of compliance for Potomac Edison by about $208 million. That cost would be paid by its ratepayers over the next 11 years, she said.

Energy Policy Maryland

At a hearing on the bill last week, Kevin Hughes, chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission, suggested that one of the wind farm projects could come before the panel again because developer U.S. Wind has said it plans to use larger wind turbines than it initially proposed. Del. Christopher Adams, an Eastern Shore Republican who sponsored the bill that was voted down, said he thinks that possible new review “suggests that there will be further deliberation” on Maryland wind farm proposals.

Offshore Wind Maryland