Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday is expected to announce a federal initiative to speed up the construction of wind farms off the coast of Ocean City.
The Obama administration began seeking bidders in early November to erect more than 300 turbines in the 206-square-mile area of the Atlantic.
Maryland Energy Adminsitration officials are reluctant to say how long it will be before cement hits the ocean floor.
The federal government approved the country’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod in April, but the project has not started looking for developers.
And Maryland is the only state, other than Delaware, to have reached this stage of soliciting bidders.
Environmental impact studies — which are required for winning bidders’ proposals — could take as long as two years, according to the state’s energy agency. And Maryland still has to find an agency to buy its wind power.
