[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/EW-06-25-13-Offshore-Wind-Moves-Ahead.mp3|titles=EW 06-25-13 Offshore Wind Moves Ahead]
Despite a decade of controversy and dispute, offshore wind technology is moving ahead in the United States.
The Department of Energy’s Wind Powering America initiative has the goal to install 54 gigawatts of wind turbines by 2030 – translating to about 10,000 offshore turbines – and constituting roughly 4% of the nation’s electricity capacity. These projects would support several hundred thousand jobs in multiple industries.
To date, wind technology investments in the U.S. have mostly been for land-based wind farms in the middle of the country. However, the 28 coastal states use 79% of the country’s electricity and often have the most expensive electric rates.
Offshore wind has several performance advantages over land-based wind. For one thing, it tends to more closely match electricity demand by picking up in the afternoon when our electricity usage also increases. Offshore wind is steadier as well, which results in a higher capacity factor, meaning that offshore turbines produce a greater fraction of their potential energy output.
Two large-scale offshore wind projects in New England are expected to begin construction this year: Rhode Island’s Deepwater Wind and the embattled and long-delayed Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound. In the meantime, the Department of Energy is funding seven offshore wind demonstration projects in six states aimed at developing technology to lower the costs and increase the efficiency of off-shore wind.
Offshore wind still faces vociferous opposition and other challenges, but it is a vast domestic renewable energy resource that has an important role to play in our future energy portfolio.
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Web Links
Wind Powering America
http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov
Photo, taken on September 6, 2005, courtesy of Nantaskart! via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.