Study: Offshore winds a mega-resource
Nov 10 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Alex Kuffner and Peter B.
Lord The Providence Journal, R.I.
There is more than enough wind off the mid-Atlantic seaboard to power
every coastal state from North Carolina to Massachusetts, according to a
new study presented in Rhode Island.
But offshore wind experts who spoke at a conference in Newport said
there is still some question whether there's enough political will or
societal support to tap a potentially unlimited source of clean energy.
Willett M. Kempton, a professor at the University of Delaware, told the
audience at the eighth annual Ronald C. Baird Sea Grant Science
Symposium that a study he and his colleagues conducted using a decade of
satellite data and information collected from federal meteorological
buoys shows that annual offshore wind resources in the region amounted
to 330 gigawatts or nearly five times the estimated energy use in nine
coastal states including Rhode Island.
If offshore wind were developed to its full potential in those states --
a scenario that would mean tens of thousands of turbines in waters up to
100 meters deep -- it could theoretically also power all the cars in the
region and provide all of its heating needs.
"There is a very large resource out there," said Kempton, director of
the university's Center for Carbon-Free Power Integration and a
professor in the College of Ocean, Earth and Environment. "If you're
going to do energy planning for Delaware, Rhode Island or most of the
states in our region, you cannot ignore offshore wind."
Kempton worked with other researchers at the University of Delaware and
scientists at Stanford University on the 2007 study, which was published
in Geophysical Research Letters.
In his presentation Nov. 3, he said that Rhode Island and Delaware,
where large offshore wind farms are being developed, are ahead of other
states racing to install turbines in their waters. They're also ahead of
the country in terms of energy policy, he said.
"The federal government is not going to catch up with us for a while,"
he said.
It was one caveat offered during his largely optimistic presentation on
the future of offshore wind in the United States. Other speakers at the
three-day conference, which focused on marine wind farms and attracted
experts from around the country and Europe, were also measured in their
assessment of the industry.
Mitchell T. Baer, director of the Office of Policy and International
Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, said that for too long
national energy policy ignored renewable power, including offshore wind.
He spoke of what he called the "inertia of the status quo," saying
momentum will pick up when major projects are developed. Cape Wind, the
controversial 130-turbine wind farm proposed off Cape Cod still awaiting
federal approval, could be one test case.
"If it goes forward, you've got one big domino that's going to fall," he
said.
Other key proposals include Deepwater Wind's two projects in Rhode
Island, which would have more than 100 turbines producing 405 megawatts
in total, and projects in development in New Jersey.
Daniel Cohen, president of Fishermen's Energy -- one of the New Jersey
developers -- told the approximately 180 people at the conference that
he had doubts about support from society and government to install
hundreds, if not thousands, of turbines offshore.
"Quite frankly, I'm not sure if the United States is willing to make
that commitment," Cohen said. "We're going to continue trying to develop
our offshore wind farm, but it's really a question of politics of state
and federal governments."
Still, Jim Lanard, managing director of Deepwater Wind, said offshore
wind farms make a lot of sense in the Northeast.
Each offshore turbine can create 50 percent more power than each one on
land, he said. In the Northeast, the wind farms would be near population
centers. And they've been operated since 1991 in Europe, so there is
plenty of data available.
He said he hopes Deepwater will be the first company to develop an
offshore wind farm in the United States, but the company wants other
wind farms to do well, too, because that will attract turbine
manufacturers to move to the United States from Europe.
Some $12 billion to $18 billion in wind development is being planned on
the East Coast, he said. But half that money or more will go to Europe
if manufacturers cannot be persuaded to move their operations to the
United States.
Manufacturers won't come to this country, he said, unless they are
guaranteed 100 orders a year for 10 years.
"Development won't be quick," Lanard said. "We won't see the first steel
in the water before 2012."
The permitting challenges are daunting, Lanard said. Deepwater must
comply with 17 federal reviews that will cost the company tens of
millions of dollars for analyses and research.
After his presentation, Kempton was asked if he thought the United
States would be able to create a manufacturing industry for offshore
wind, which is the great hope of policymakers who believe it would
generate long-term jobs and help revive the country's economy.
"It'll happen, but you need to have a market," he said.
Barry A. Costa-Pierce, Rhode Island's Sea Grant director and chairman of
the conference organizing committee, said he was impressed by the
opportunities and challenges offshore wind power offers to Rhode Island.
"This is the greatest opportunity of our lives to make an impact on
climate change, renewable energy and food -- 80 percent of our seafood
is imported," said Costa-Pierce. He added that construction of the wind
farm would be an enormous construction job that should involve private
industry, state government and university scientists.
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