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In the great clean-energy debate, wind is only part of the solution. New Jersey is the first state in the nation to require a mandatory 2050 limit on global warming pollution.

In this growing energy-hungry economy, New Jersey is setting the national pace the with the Global Warming Response Act, passed by state legislature in July 2007, which requires mandatory reduction in the state's global warming pollution 20 percent, to below 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 percent below the current level by 2050.

New Jersey is not just starting its alternative energy efforts. In December 2005, the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm in Atlantic City was erected. The five-turbine wind farm produces 8 megawatts of energy, which is enough to power 2,500 homes.The turbines are estimated to supplant 23,613 barrels of crude oil annually, and in 2005, the Atlantic City Utility Authority, Atlantic City, saved $421,000 in avoided electricity costs.

The plans do not end there. New Jersey officials are planning an 80-turbine windmill farm off the South Jersey coast, somewhere between southern Ocean County and Cape May, capable of producing 350 megawatts per hour.

Paul J. Gallagher, vice president of the Atlantic City Utilities Authority, estimates that the proposed project would cost about $720 million. Gallagher's concern is not with the effectiveness of windfarms today, but how New Jersey will deal with unforeseen energy use increase in the future.

"To reach 20 percent of the 2020 demand, New Jersey will need more onshore wind, some off shore wind, a solar installation on every school gym in the state, and full deployment of every other technology that is available and viable,"says Gallagher. "Adding windfarms, solar or landfill gas,or any renewable source,is preferable to some traditional fossil based technology. But you are going to need a mix of sources.

"Even if we reach the 20 percent Renewable Portfolio Standard by 2020, where is the other 80 percent of that mix going to come from? And that's not 20 percent of today's need, but 20 percent of some larger demand 13 years into the future. Wind is only part of the solution."

Learn more about this author, Krysta Venturella.
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