offshore wind power

As rumored, New York-based private equity giant Blackstone Group is pouring $1.5 billion into an offshore wind farm in Germany that will power half a million homes and avert 1.6 million tons of CO2 emissions.

It’s being billed as one of the largest wind projects in the North Sea and should spawn a heap of German "green collar" jobs. Says the Blackstone Group:

It is planned to source all technical expertise and substantially all materials from within Germany.

Why would Blackstone choose Germany for its mammoth project? In the company's own words:

Finally some news of an offshore wind power deal in the US that doesn’t end in a project-stomping NIMBY victory.

Bluewater Wind has secured a buyer, Delmarva Power, for part of the electricity that it's planning to generate from its long-awaited offshore wind park, 13 miles off the coast of Delaware.

The two companies signed a 25-year contract for the sale of up to 200 megawatts this week. (The $1.6 billion project could eventually produce as much as 600 megawatts -- enough electricity to power 110,000 Delaware households.)

The turbines are expected to go online in 2012. When that happens, Delaware, the "First State," will become home to America's very first offshore wind farm.

About time.