The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation recently wrote a piece highlighting the potential for offshore wind development in the US, specifically, in the midwest: The simple message? “The potential for offshore wind power generation in the U.S. is staggering.”
And the figures presented in the opening paragraph back this up: The US has a projected 4,223 GW worth of offshore wind generating potential — with 50 GW from the Ohio waters of Lake Erie alone.
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation was founded in 2009 to initially build wind turbines in Lake Erie, before desiring to turn its attention towards stimulating “an entire offshore freshwater wind industry.” And they make a strong case: As they write, “offshore wind offers a viable, untapped opportunity for large-scale clean energy projects that produce zero emissions in operation, consume no water, and displace the generation from some of our nation’s dirtiest power plants.”
But as Lake Erie notes, “the U.S. lags woefully behind the rest of the world in offshore wind power generation.”
One need only cast their eyes over the last few months of offshore wind energy news here at CleanTechnica, to see how thoroughly Europe figures in the industry. Danish juggernaut DONG Energy alone claims to have built more offshore wind farms than any other company worldwide, and a quick look at its installations show these clumped heavily in the west of Europe.
Lake Erie claims that Europe has at least 80 offshore projects in operation or under construction, compared to the US, where “offshore wind development is in its infant stages”.
cleantechnica
Five innovations that could cut the cost of offshore wind
The expense is largely down to the difficulty of installing and maintaining large wind turbines able to withstand the elements.
This week the Royal Society has published a special journal issue devoted to offshore innovation. It has 16 papers covering everything from designing better turbines using computers and miniature models to cutting the cost of installation and maintenance through remote sensing. Here are five ideas from the special issue that caught our eye.
Screw-in turbine foundations
Good vibrations
Tiny models
Vertical axis floating turbines
Machine learning
carbonbrief