Offshore wind turbine design - Wind Power Generation and Wind Turbine Design - page 364

The United States enjoys signifi cant onshore and offshore resources. While
onshore plants are more cost effective to develop than offshore ones, some of the
onshore sites in the U.S. have the following disadvantages:

• They are away from the population centers in the U.S. More than half of the

United States population lives at or near shore.
Similarly (and perhaps as a consequence of 1 above), these onshore resources •

are away from the grid connections.
They are mostly in areas which do not have signifi cant electricity demand thus •

depressing electricity prices in those areas and upsetting the economical struc-
ture for wind developers.

On the other hand, some regions of New England and the Mid-Atlantic states
have some of the highest electricity prices, thus making wind and other (generally
more expensive) renewable energy sources more cost effective. East coast states
also have high land usage preventing the development of onshore wind plants or
even the development of fossil-based onshore power generation stations. These
states also have readily available grid connectivity close to the shore where most
of the population is located.
While onshore wind plants are well understood, offshore installations present unique
challenges to the wind industry, particularly as coastal communities demand them to
be placed further off shore. These challenges are discussed in the following sections.

2 Offshore resource potential

Signifi cant offshore wind energy resources are available in the United States. Figure 1
shows the U.S. wind power resource with superb wind power availability around
the coastal areas. Table 1 shows the offshore wind resources along U.S. coast.
Looking at Fig. 1 and Table 1, one could argue the United States enjoys signifi cant
wind resources inland, and much of these resources are in mid-western states with
limited land use or visibility issues. However, while development of these inland
areas is more cost effective than offshore plants, they are unlikely to be fully
developed for several reasons:

• Distance from population centers - more than half of the U.S. population lives

at or near a coastline. Developing midwestern sites results in signifi cant energy
transportation costs.
Distance from grid - similarly, available inland resources are not near grid

•

connections.
Low local demand - available midwestern sites primarily fall in areas which do •

not have signifi cant electricity demand, thus depressing electricity prices in
those areas.

On the other hand, it is clear that both New England and the mid-Atlantic regions
have signifi cantly more offshore wind resource than is available on land. In addition,
New England and the mid-Atlantic states have the highest electricity prices, thus
making wind and other renewable energy sources more cost effective. East coast
states also have higher land usage, which tends to prevent development of inland