Passionate about offshore & floating wind. Expert in breaking in to new offshore wind markets, rolling out new product/service offerings, building new teams for projects or long-term.
What Will It Take To Unlock U.S. Floating Offshore Wind Energy? A massive 2.8 terawatts of U.S. offshore wind energy potential—enough to power 350 million homes—blows over ocean waters too deep for wind turbines to be fixed to the sea floor with foundations. The solution to capturing this valuable energy resource? Offshore wind turbines that float on the water and anchor to the seabed with mooring lines. As the first West Coast commercial-scale projects aim to be built around 2030, the United States will have to develop ports able to deploy commercial-scale floating offshore wind energy development. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study, recently published in a report titled, The Impacts of Developing a Port Network for Floating Offshore Wind Energy on the West Coast of the United States, focuses on what it will take to develop a system of ports. Spoiler alert: It will take time, and it will be a big investment. But it will be worth it. In addition to supplying clean energy to millions of coastal businesses and households, a West Coast floating wind energy supply chain could also provide thousands of jobs for local communities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by lowering transport distances, and lower the risk of relying on overseas materials. Five Focus Areas: The study identifies the following five primary areas of focus to develop a West Coast ports network, which suggest that the country will need to: 1. Update the existing West Coast port infrastructure to manufacture technology components domestically, install projects efficiently, and contribute effectively to clean energy goals on a commercial scale. 2. Encourage collaboration and communication among a huge number of stakeholders, along with an authorized decision-making entity (or entities) for strategic planning. 3. Build a significant workforce to construct and operate West Coast floating wind ports and attract workers in likely port-development regions. 4. Provide transparency and certainty around permitting and regulatory requirements for ports so they are less unpredictable and time-consuming, easing the approval process and helping with strategic planning. 5. Grow a vessel fleet to install and service offshore wind power projects in parallel with the port network after developing requirements for U.S. shipbuilding capacity. My View - There's a huge amount of offshore wind potential, not only in the USA but also globally that can be utilised with floating turbines. In order to do so, we must focus on the delivery of serialisation, standardisation, and mass production - which Vidi Energy is pioneering. Original post by: nrel.gov Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/eefQ-uxE #windenergy #windenergie #offshorewind #offshorewindenergy #floatingwind #floatingoffshorewind
We need the innovation we are seeing (plus more), a unique ecosystem for renewable energy that understands and provides support for that innovation through the magnitude of challenges to get to market and we need investment, from government, development banks and investment funds, that understand this is the long play game.
Here's an idea: if they are floating, register them as vessels, and skip a bunch of the permitting nightmare?
Judging by what is being spent in the EU areas on floating wind a good few trillion green backs will dip a toe in the pond
Great points Robert Speht - infrastructure and vessels are major challenges. Not sure if applies on the west coast, but I did in passing conversation about east coast challenges regarding US vessels, loading/unloading etc. so no short cuts with EU or non-dom vessels etc
Passionate about offshore & floating wind. Expert in breaking in to new offshore wind markets, rolling out new product/service offerings, building new teams for projects or long-term.
10moThere's a huge amount of offshore wind potential, not only in the USA but also globally that can be utilised with floating turbines. In order to do so, we must focus on the delivery of serialisation, standardisation, and mass production - which Vidi Energy is pioneering.