Top 5 Things To Know About Offshore Wind Energy

Energy CIO Insights | Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Offshore Wind Energy is non-polluting, clean and renewable form of energy. It is being promoted for its enormous resource base and higher quality of resource compared to other available energies.

FREMONT, CA: Offshore wind energy is obtained by taking advantage of the force of the wind that is produced on the high seas, where it reaches a higher and more constant speed than on land due to the nonexistence of barriers. It is also a renewable, non-polluting and clean form of energy.

Here are some features of offshore wind energy:

1. Offshore Wind Resources Are Abundant:

To fulfill the electrical needs of cities along coastlines, offshore wind has the potential to deliver enormous amounts of clean and renewable energy. According to National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the technical resource potential for U.S. offshore wind is over 2,000 gigawatts of capacity and 7,200 terawatt-hours per year of generation.

2. Offshore Wind Turbines Can Be Extremely Tall: 

Offshore turbines can be scaled up to one-and-a-half times the height of the Washington Monument and with blades the length of a football field to capture the abundant wind resources available offshore.

3. Offshore Wind Farms Use Undersea Cables to Transfer Electricity

Offshore wind turbines produce electricity. It travels back to the land through a series of cable systems that are hidden in the sea floor. This electricity is directed through coastal load centers. Now the next process is to prioritize where the electricity should go and distributes it into the electrical grid to power different places like schools, houses and other places.

4. The Majority of U.S. Offshore Wind Resources Are in Deep Waters

Almost 60 percent of the nation’s offshore wind resources are in areas where the water is so deep. Here the traditional foundations are large steel piles or lattice structures fixed to the seabed are not practical. U.S. offshore wind projects are producing a range of different foundations suited to unique conditions at each site.

5. Offshore Wind Turbines Can Float

For use in deep waters, numerous firms are developing innovative floating offshore wind platforms. Semi-submersible, spar-buoy, and tension leg platforms are their form of floating platforms.

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