The Cape Wind Projects from A Danish Perspective

How's a wind farm opponent to respond when the developer brings a visitor from Denmark to expound on the benefits of offshore wind? By finding another Dane with a more critical view of offshore wind. As reported in Shift on the wind: Second Danish expert offers opposing views on Nantucket Sound project's feasibility , David Kibbe, Cape Cod Online.com (12/20/03), opponents of the Cape Wind Project brought Cresten Anderson, an outspoken critic of the projects in Denmark, to the Massachusetts Statehouse to offer his perspective on the projects. Here's what he said:

[First], the Horns Rev project [the largest offshore windfarm in the world] does not offer a fair comparison to what is being proposed by Cape Wind. "It's two completely different kinds of tourism that you have there," Anderson said yesterday. Among his criticisms, Anderson said it was misguided to compare the North Sea resort area to Cape Cod and the islands. "Cape Cod is a place where you go down, you have a lot of wind surfing and sailing," he said. "The North Sea, where Blavandshuk is located, you can go 20 feet out into the water, then you can't go any further, because of the undercurrents, and there are pitfalls in the water. You don't go swimming. You don't really go sailing, either. There's a lot of wind. It's really, really dangerous." Anderson also said the Danish wind farm was not economical, due to high government subsides and a low rate of return on energy. He said the money would be better spent cleaning up power plants in Eastern Europe.