Ocean Wind’s Many And Varied Benefits

The value of offshore wind energy: What the US is missing out on; Economists take a look at what contributes to offshore wind's value.

Megan Geuss, April 26, 2018 (Ars Technica)

“The US is a latecomer to the world of offshore wind…[Compare its one 30 MW project, brought online in 2016,] to Europe. The continent now has 15,780MW of offshore wind…European projects added 560 new offshore wind turbines across 17 different offshore wind farms in 2017 alone…[A new report from] the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is now asking: what is the value of the offshore wind that the US didn't build over the last decade? Although many analyses have studied the falling cost of installing offshore wind, assigning a value to offshore wind is ground that is less well-tread. Though it's much more expensive to construct turbines in the ocean, offshore wind can also generate more value because sea breezes tend to be stronger and more reliable, and wind turbines can be built bigger…The Berkeley researchers found that over the last 10 years, the value of hypothetical US offshore wind energy ranged from $40/MWh to more than $110/MWh depending on where the wind was sited and how renewable energy was priced in that region…” click here for more

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