Worldwide industrialists eyeing wind power potential last week toured the Jersey-Atlantic Windfarm, looking to gain valuable insight from the five wind turbines that power the Atlantic County sewage plant.

Excess energy generated by the public-private project in operation for the past five years is sold to the grid. The facility is New Jersey's only electricity-generating wind farm.

"New Jersey is the Saudi Arabia of wind because of the length of the coastline and the category 4 and 5 winds that blow 15 miles out all the time," New Jersey Sierra Club director Jeff Tittel said.

More than 1,600 attendees went to the North America offshore wind conference organized by the American Wind Energy Association. Touring the five 380-foot tall turbines was optional for attendees but it also was the highlight of the conference, considering the windfarm is effective and successful.

In addition to strong winds breezing up and down the lengthy coastline, the continental shelf facilitates the construction of efficient wind farms in the shallow waters of the Mid-Atlantic as compared to deeper waters elsewhere.