. Actually..huge offshore farms are going to be built off Rhode Island..and NY..and Mass...and NJ..and CT....
I remember when they tried to do it off Mass, and the Kennedys said NIMBY.
It will, of course, eventually happen. It will, of course, supply energy. It will, due to science, not help enough to make an appreciable difference.
The smallest nuclear power generating station in the United States (Ginna) makes 582 MW. It is essentially not fiscally viable, being so small.
To make the same energy using 20 MW windmills, working at an optimistic 50% average capacity, you would need 58 in the farm.
According to the National Renewable Energy Lab, you need about 65-70 acres per megawatt generated total space. At 65 acres/MW X 582 MW X 2 (to take into account a 50% ((very optimistic)) average capacity factor), a total area of 75,660 acres is necessary.
All of my figures are scaled to be best for the use of the windmills. Using actual numbers would be far worse.
So, that's 118 square miles of land, or sea, devoted to the same thing that is handled by the smallest American nuclear power plant.
So, yeah, they're out there, and they make electricity (even in the GW range, totaled, I'm very impressed). They're unreliable, eye-sores, and produce very little energy for the space they take up; but, yeah, I'm sure they'll put them in to make people feel good. Again, I think they're great for very small, remote areas! I'd rather see them for that kind of use for sure!