Skipjack Offshore Energy will be able to build 800-foot wind turbines off the Ocean City coast, the Maryland Public Service Commission ruled this week.
That’s 200 feet higher than previously proposed. Residents have long worried about the impact of turbines on the view available to beachgoers. The commission told Skipjack to work with residents on an agreement.
The firm convinced the panel that the type of turbine used would be reliable, advanced and well-suited to the wind conditions off the mid-Atlantic coast. The turbine’s tip will reach as high as 853 feet. However, Skipjack will need fewer turbines to reach its desired output.
“The reduced number of turbines will facilitate an alternative turbine layout, which Skipjack indicated will likely consist of a grid pattern of two rows of five or six structures perpendicular to the Delaware coast, each oriented in an east-west manner,” the commission wrote, determining its impact on the visible horizon will be marginal.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Phil Yacuboski and Tyler Waldman over at WBAL
