Obama wants energy from ocean wind

It's like I wrote President Obama's Earth Day speech. In Iowa, Obama announced the death of Captain NIMO with a nod to blogfish:

"Captain NIMO is dead, and we're going to explore clean energy options from the ocean" he said, "and I'd like to thank the ocean blog, blogfish for leading on this issue."

OK, he didn't really say that, but it's almost like he did.

He did announce new regulations that authorize offshore wind energy leases. And the goal of the program is clean energy and green jobs.

Now it's time for ocean people to find a way to play in the new push for clean ocean industry, by helping solve problems rather than playing Captain NIMO. If we're worried about the acid ocean zombie plague monster, then we have to find a way to bring some ocean-based solutions to the climate change table. Otherwise, we and the oceans will be road kill in the race for solutions.

It's the new face of Earth Day, who will help find solutions instead of just pointing out the problems??

image: ocean wind energy, solution or threat?

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Does wind power float your boat?

The innovation in ocean energy continues with Blue H's new floating wind turbine. A prototype is due to launch later this month, 12 miles of the Italian coast. Conveniently, that's just on the edge of the territorial sea, placing the turbine at the confluence of Italian and EU jurisdiction. You may know Blue H as the company that's developing a (non-floating) deepwater wind farm off the Massachusetts coast.

It's great to see that companies (primarily European ones) are continuing to invest in product development. That's no small investment, but we're not at the mousetrap stage yet for ocean energy; we need to keep testing and trying to find devices that work for both marine life and efficient power production. Is it time for an American EMEC--a single testing facility for new devices--rather than our current gold rush permitting process?

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Ocean winds revealed

Ever wanna know what the winds will be like in March off the Oregon coast? Here's a new tool that will tell you, COGOW, the ocean wind atlas.

To find out about ocean winds, just click the link above, select an area on the map that comes up, and select a month. You'll get an image like the one at left, showing wind patterns and strength for that area and month.

For March off Oregon (left), notice that great swirling pattern of winds centered in the Pacific off California. It shows where the gyre monster lives, accumulating plastic trash.

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