Not just hot air

I had the opportunity last week to attend the Southeast Regional Offshore Wind Power Symposium in Charleston as a poster presenter with Roger Flynn, a fellow Policy Studies doctoral student (our presentation is briefly referenced here -- we are the "pair of Clemson University economists" mentioned toward the bottom of the page). I find the prospects for wind power to be rather exciting, given the opportunity to reduce the externalities associated with conventional methods of power generation. We learned that South Carolina is in an especially good position to develop an offshore wind power industry due to the shallowness of our coastal waters that extends much further than most other coastal states, allowing for less costly construction of wind farms that are far enough off-shore to take advantage of the best available winds. South Carolina also has the benefit of hosting a General Electric plant in Greenville that manufactures wind turbines; according to our study, this among other factors provides the potential for significant positive economic impacts to the state from wind power.

The biggest problem right now with developing wind power is that it requires substantial capital investment, such that, in terms of private cost, it is not very competitive with coal or other power generation facilities on a per-megawatt hour basis. Roger's presentation on the second day of the symposium, which outlined a number of policy options to stimulate investment in wind power, was well-received by those in attendance (SC BIZ coverage).