Another Look at Offshore Wind Energy.

A team of Stanford researchers is scheduled to present this week the conclusions of thier study about the viability of offshore wind farms (similar to the Cape Cod proposal that was essentially killed because it blocked the Kennedys' view) for California.

The researchers studied three sites, Cape Mendocino in Northern California, San Francisco Bay and Southern California. Already it is clear that San Francisco Bay is a no-go because water depth would require floating barges; Southern California is not so good because winds die down in the summer.

Cape Mendocino would be perfect, though-- so perfect that the researchers estimate you could supplant 5% of California's energy production from carbon-emitting sources. The only problem is that most of the transmission lines needed to handle that energy... are in Southern California.

Stop me if you've heard all this before...

For more on this riveting academic exercise, see the write-up in physorg.com.