wind projects

Efficiency Of Offshore Wind | Earth Wise

December 10, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

After many years of debates, delays, and controversies, offshore wind is about to expand in a big way in the United States. The White House has announced the goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind – enough to power 90 million homes – along the East Coast seaboard by 2030.

In New York State, there are now five offshore wind projects in active development. The state goal is to have nearly a gigawatt of offshore wind by 2035, enough to power over 4 million homes.

These projects involve the use of thousands of physically large, high-capacity wind turbines deployed over large areas at an unprecedented scale. Such mammoth installations bring with them unique problems.

Low-turbulence conditions over water lead to the fact that individual wind farms will experience each other’s wake (the disturbance of their airflow) even when turbine arrays are 15 to 50 miles apart. As a result, turbines may fatigue earlier, and groups of turbines may experience up to 30% lower power production due to wake effects.

Industry trends are causing an increased probability of large wake-induced energy losses within individual wind farms and an increasing probability of wake interactions.

These issues have been studied in new research published by researchers at Cornell University. The research presents simulations that may be helpful to optimize turbine spacing in the ongoing deployments and assist plans for future ones. Improved understanding of wind turbine and wind-farm wake is essential in ensuring that the financial investments in offshore wind result in electricity-generation goals met at the lowest possible cost.

According to Department of Energy studies, offshore wind resources around the United States could potentially generate more electricity than the entire country currently uses.

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Scientists bring efficiency to expanding offshore wind energy

Photo, posted August 9, 2016, courtesy of Lars Plougmann via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Green Light For Commercial-Scale Offshore Wind | Earth Wise

May 27, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Biden administration has given final approval to a project it hopes will usher in a new era of wind energy in the United States. The greenlight was announced by the Department of the Interior on May 11.

The Vineyard Wind project intends to install up to 84 huge wind turbines about 12 nautical miles off the cost of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. In total, Vineyard Wind could generate 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 400,000 homes. The construction project will create about 3,600 jobs. The $2.8 billion project is a joint venture of the energy firms Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

The idea of a wind farm off the Massachusetts coast was conceived 20 years ago but ran into repeated setbacks, delays, and well-funded opposition from waterfront property owners concerned about what will ultimately be the barely discernable sight of tiny blips on the distant horizon. The Trump administration moved to cancel the permitting process for Vineyard Wind, but the Biden administration revived the project in March as part of its greater efforts to tackle climate change.

Electricity generated by Vineyard Wind will travel via cables buried six feet below the ocean floor to Cape Cod, where they will connect to a substation and feed into the New England grid. The project is expected to begin delivering wind-powered electricity in 2023.

The Biden administration says that it intends to fast-track permits for other wind projects off the Atlantic Coast and that it will offer $3 billion in federal loan guarantees for offshore wind projects and invest in upgrades to ports across the United States to support wind turbine construction.

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Biden Administration Approves Nation’s First Major Offshore Wind Farm

Photo, posted February 8, 2007, courtesy of mmatsuura via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

New York Offshore Wind

September 18, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

New York has passed ambitious legislation to reduce the carbon emissions that cause climate change, but the state needs to start taking action to make those reductions possible. One such action it has taken is an agreement that will enable the construction of two large offshore wind projects.

The projects are to be built off the coast of Long Island. One will be 14 miles south of Jones Beach and the other 30 miles north of Montauk. The wind farms will be built by a division of Equinor, a major Danish energy company, and a joint venture between Orsted, another Danish company, and Eversource Energy, an American firm.

The two New York wind farms are expected to be operational within the next five years and have the capacity to produce 1,700 megawatts of electricity. That is about 20% of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s overall goal for offshore wind.

Wind farms are a major energy source in the United States, now providing about 7% of the country’s electricity. That compares with only 2% in 2010. But nearly all American wind turbines are on land. There is only one small offshore wind farm in the US off the coast of Rhode Island. Things are very different in Europe. For example, Britain expects to get 10% of its electricity from offshore wind next year, which is up from less than 1% in 2010.

Developers of offshore wind farms have struggled to gain a foothold in the US. Some projects have foundered because of cost issues, but others have faced opposition from politicians and coastal-property owners. But assuming the New York wind projects clear permitting and environmental hurdles, offshore wind may finally be on the move in the US.

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New York Awards Offshore Wind Contracts in Bid to Reduce Emissions

Photo, posted May 22, 2007, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.