pilot project

A Giant U.S. Offshore Wind Project Begins | Earth Wise

June 22, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In recent years, the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management – the agency that oversees energy projects in federal waters – has been granting leases for offshore wind projects in the waters of multiple states on the East Coast. Up until now, none of these leases have actually resulted in the deployment of any wind turbines because the process of gaining approvals, project plans, surveys, funding and other requirements is a long and tortuous one.

In late May, the first offshore wind turbine in U.S. federal waters was installed 27 miles offshore from Virginia. The 6-MW Siemens turbine is one of two turbines making up the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project. The pilot project is expected to be operational later this year. This project is the first to receive go-ahead approval by the BOEM.

The CVOW project is a development by Dominion Energy, a Virginia-based utility that operates in 20 states. Dominion’s project will eventually be a 2.64 GW mega-farm that could be the largest offshore wind farm in the world. Construction of the main project is expected to begin in 2024. It will be sited in the seabed of a 112,800-acre lease area. The site is currently being surveyed to determine potential impacts to ocean and sea life.

Dominion Energy has made multiple commitments to emissions reduction and the massive offshore wind farm is an important part of its efforts to meet those commitments. The CVOW pilot project is only the second offshore wind installation in the U.S. The first, the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island, is in state waters and did not require BOEM approval.

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A ‘monumental day’ for US offshore wind as first turbine is installed in federal waters

Photo, posted May 13, 2011, courtesy of the Department of Energy and Climate Change via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Compressed Air Energy Storage

October 23, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The increasing use of solar and wind power has created a growing need for technology to store up the energy they generate for use when it is most needed.

Historically, pumped hydropower has provided the largest amount of storage capacity, but it is limited to only certain geographic locations. Battery energy storage has been growing rapidly, with the technology becoming better and cheaper over time. But there are various other ways to store energy that have potential and may well find their place in the changing energy infrastructure.

One of these is compressed air energy storage, which has been around for more than a century. It has been used as a backup method for restarting power plants. But to date, the economic viability of using it at a large scale has been lacking.

A Canadian startup company called Hydrostor is developing compressed air energy storage technology that it believes can be used on a utility scale.

The way it works is excess renewable energy is used to run compressors that compress air. Compressing the air heats it up and the heat is captured and stored in insulated hot water tanks. The compressed gas is then injected into underground caverns. When energy is needed, the compressed air is released, the stored heat is added, and the warmed gas is run through turbines to generate electricity. Additional features improve the system’s efficiency.

Hydrostore has built a 1 MW pilot project in Ontario, Canada and is now commissioning a 2MW system as well. It is funded to build a 5 MW system in Australia next year and it is bidding for 300 MW and 500 MW systems in North America. The company has received equity funding from Baker Hughes, a large oil-and-gas services and equipment company.

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Storing energy in compressed air could finally become cheap enough for the big time

Photo courtesy of Hydrostor.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.