WIRES KEY TO OCEAN WIND

Networked Transmission Deemed Key to Lowering Costs of Offshore Wind Energy
April 18, 2011 (Atlantic Wind Connection)

"Networked transmission systems are key to lowering costs of offshore wind energy, many different experts have concluded. In Europe, there is a concerted effort to establish a high-voltage, direct-current “Supergrid” to connect the continent’s booming offshore wind energy development with the onshore transmission system.

"A coalition of companies…known as 'Friends of the Supergrid' define the concept as…[a direct current transmission system to move New Energy-generated electricity in remote to load centers and enhance electricity markets]…"

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"Europe has charged ahead of the U.S. in developing offshore wind energy resources, and is now pursuing offshore backbone transmission systems as a means of creating economic and operating efficiencies and lowering costs. National Grid in the UK has analyzed the integration of offshore wind energy resources and concluded that an offshore networked approach to transmission offers a 25% cost savings over linking wind facilities using individual radial lines."

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"The Atlantic Wind Connection project offers U.S. policymakers the opportunity to learn from the experience in Europe and integrate an offshore transmission backbone from the start to allow large-scale development of the wind energy resource and lower costs for consumers.

"…Habib Dagher, director of the U.S. Department of Energy-funded DeepCWind Consortium at the University of Maine…called AWC ‘a critical project’ that will separate the building of transmission from the building of the wind farm, which in turn [eases the burden on investors and developers]…"