Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar were in Norfolk today to announce Federal investments in mid-Atlantic offshore wind energy development that could see lease sales off the Virginia coast by year’s end. Up to $50.5 million will be spent on research and development with the hopes of removing the market-based barriers to wind energy development.

“Virginia has 94 gigawatts of capacity, for example, and if a tenth of that could be captured, it would meet the needs of three million homes”, said Secretary Chu.

From the New York Times: “The two secretaries said they would establish four ‘wind energy areas’ in the outer continental shelf, gathering information about the ‘environmental and geophysical attributes’ of each one and providing information to potential investors. Mr. Chu said the goal was to get the price of offshore wind down to levels where it could compete without subsidies.”

“Eliminating another stumbling block to such offshore development, the departments of Energy and Interior worked with the Defense Department to identify locations that wouldn’t interfere with military operations and training”, said Secretary Salazar (as quoted in the Virginian-Pilot).

“Renewable energy can be a major driver for the Virginia economy if the state and federal governments just removed some of the barriers and provided incentives to expanding the industry here,” said Joe Cook, Clean Energy Chair with the Sierra Club’s Chesapeake Bay Group. “An April 2010 study conducted by the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium says development of offshore wind in the state could create more than 10,000 career length jobs.”