In July, American offshore wind developer, for what is expected to be the first offshore wind farm in the United States. The project will be located three miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island.
With five turbines totaling 30 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity, the Block Island Wind Farm is expected to come online in 2016. Deepwater Wind, the developer, is also planning two larger offshore projects along the Atlantic Coast, but their timing remains uncertain.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that the United States has . In addition, offshore wind turbines are built to take advantage of the more consistent wind speeds present over the ocean, allowing higher utilization rates for offshore generation capacity when compared with similarly sized onshore wind turbines. However, offshore wind is significantly more expensive to build and maintain than onshore wind.
Although there are currently no operating offshore wind projects in the United States, offshore wind turbine technology has grown steadily in Europe, and, to a lesser extent, in Asia. As of 2014, Europe accounted for 90% of the from that point until the 2000s.
In the United States, developers have proposed building of New Jersey have faced development hurdles despite making significant progress in project development.
Compared with western Europe, the current leader in offshore wind energy, the United States is estimated to have more abundant and favorable onshore wind resources, which are largely located in areas with low population density. So far, the high cost of domestic offshore wind projects has made them economically unattractive, despite the availability of federal tax incentives and state policies to promote use of renewable energy. In contrast, onshore wind capacity has grown by more than a factor of 25 since 2000.
Building and maintaining offshore wind technology is expensive compared with onshore wind projects because of challenges such as transporting equipment and workers to the sites, securing turbines to the seafloor, and operating in fewer periods of fair weather. The harsher offshore environment not only makes it difficult and more costly to perform maintenance, but it also increases the frequency that these activities have to take place.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Lindoe Offshore Renewables Center
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Lindoe Offshore Renewables Center
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, based on Lindoe Offshore Renewables Center
Principal contributors: Rachel Marsh, Cara Marcy
