Restoration Institute expert: Wind farms bring economic boom

Published: September 28, 2009

Nick Rigas image by: Peter Hull

CHARLESTON – A Clemson University wind-energy expert told a Charleston conference not to get sticker-shock over the cost of installing offshore wind farms.

Nick Rigas, director of the Renewable Energy focus area of the Clemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston and vice president of EcoEnergy, a wind farm-project development company, said that a land-based wind farm that opened this month in Illinois had a big price tag, but also came with huge local economic benefits.

Stephenson County, a rural community about 115 miles west of Chicago, officially opened a 67-turbine wind farm Sept. 18 at a cost of about $230 million. About $175 million of that was for turbine equipment. The rest went to local manufacturers and suppliers, transportation companies and labor.

For example, the project required 22,000 truckloads of concrete, all ferried to the site by a local company. The tower and blades aside, a wind turbine consists of about 260,000 parts and components, all supplied by small- and medium-sized companies.

“Although people see these projects as massive projects, they also are entrepreneurial projects,” Rigas said at the 2009 Green Business Expo Friday, Sept. 25.

The 50,000 megawatts of required wind power in the United States projected by the U.S. Department of Energy would generate $1 trillion in cumulative economic activity and more than 250,000 jobs during the next 20 years.

In South Carolina, this could mean up to 20,000 new manufacturing jobs. But the Palmetto State should not wait for wind power, Rigas said.

Offshore wind has become a hot-button topic. Almost every state along the Eastern Seaboard has started looking at this form of renewable energy as an economic development tool.

Small wonder, given that wind power has emerged as the fastest growing renewable-energy market in the world. Global installation of wind farms has increased at an annual rate of 27 percent during the last seven years and now accounts for about one-third of new electricity-generating capacity.

As added incentive, South Carolina meets the three important cost drivers for developing offshore wind farms: strong winds in shallow waters, access to commercial port facilities and large coastal demand.

“South Carolina has a lot of potential, but it’s an aggressive playing field, Rigas said”

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