Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Offshore Installations
Offshore wind plants were first deployed in Europe and are increasingly attractive in the
United States. Large urban areas are often located near bodies of water with good wind re-
sources. In the United States, 28 percent of the coastal states use 78 percent of the electricity.
Transmission lines run from offshore wind plants would be much shorter but are more costly
than connections to most land-based sites. To reduce the higher cost of undersea cabling,
consideration is being given to using DC links to larger projects. Wind resources are excel-
lent off the East and West Coasts and on the Great Lakes. In order to achieve a 20 percent
share of electricity generation, 54 GW of the planned 305 GW of wind power are estimated
to be from offshore plants. Consideration of offshore resource potential is only beginning,
and current estimates are probably low.
Offshore projects are being planned or are developing in eight states: Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Texas, Ohio, Virginia, and Delaware. The first of
these should be operating in 200. These sites are in relatively shallow water (about 30 m
or less) beyond the 3-nautical mile (nm) limit of state waters (Texas and the Gulf coast of
Florida claim a 9-nm limit on state waters) and in areas regulated by the Minerals Manage-
ment Service in the Department of the Interior. Far-offshore sites are attractive for aesthetic
reasons and to avoid migratory bird routes. Protected waters, including the Chesapeake and
Delaware Bays, may prove to have more cost-effective sites due to their shallower water and
lower wave heights, provided that environmental concerns can be overcome. The configura-
tion of a typical offshore wind plant is shown in Figure 4-38.
Figure 4-38. Schematic diagram of a typical offshore wind power station in relatively
shallow water.
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