Offshore Wind Collaborative
The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC), General Electric (GE), and the U.S. Department of Energy have formed an Organizing Group to discuss and create guidelines for an offshore wind collaborative, with input from a wide range of stakeholders interested in sustainable, technologically sound development of offshore wind energy resources.
The Organizing Group has identified and outlined ways to address critical technical, environmental, and regulatory issues through its strategic plan, A Framework for Offshore Wind Energy Development in the United States, released in September 2005. This document details the steps that are necessary to enable offshore wind energy as a commercially, politically, socially, economically and environmentally sustainable energy resource. A principal focus is to broaden the wind resource potential through exploration of deep-water1 and far offshore technologies.
The highly collaborative process that was implemented to develop the Framework will be replicated to form an offshore wind collaborative which will implement the agenda put forth in the Framework. The strengths of the public sector, private industry, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academia will be tapped to enhance understanding of the issues critical to the successful deployment of large-scale, offshore wind energy systems. The goal is to overcome the barriers to generating and delivering electricity from U.S. offshore wind farms at a competitive cost by the beginning of the next decade.
A wind energy collaborative for wind energy development in the waters of the Atlantic, far off the Northeast coast, will be an initial partnership. Through the Framework, the Organizing Group encourages the development of multiple regional and local collaboratives to address concerns and develop implementation methods for offshore wind energy development in other areas of the United States.
Several factors are driving the opportunities in offshore wind development. They include the demand for clean sources of energy, the lack of windy lands available for large-scale development in many coastal states, and the successful exploitation of offshore wind resources in other countries. The global wind energy market is projected to grow from its current annual size of $8 billion to $47 billion in the next 10 years, with a major percentage of this invested in offshore facilities.2 Preliminary estimates of wind resources offshore in the U.S. at distances from 5 nautical miles (nm) to 50 nm offshore indicate there to be over 800 GW of offshore wind development potential in deep waters compared to less than 100 GW in shallower water.
The process for structuring and launching an offshore wind collaborative consists of three major components:
- Consulting with key parties to identify key issues and obstacles to a sustainable offshore wind industry.
Accomplished through collaborative process employed to form the Framework in 2004 and 2005. - The development of a Strategic Plan that recommends the optimal pathway leading to the successful development of offshore wind farms.
Accomplished through development and release of the Framework in September 2005. - The design of a Business Plan that recommends the organizational structure, funding levels and sources, and human resources necessary to implement the Strategic Plan and achieve its goals.
Currently under final revisions.
The technical and public policy challenges to harnessing wind within the complex marine environment and in offshore waters that are a public trust resource, are immense. MTC and its partners believe that by leveraging the expertise of industry, government, and academia to address these issues through an integrated approach, an offshore wind collaborative will significantly benefit both industry and the public interest.
1 Deep water refers to depths approaching 30 meters (~100 feet) and deeper, typically further offshore where the winds are stronger and more consistent than anywhere else in the US . Twenty meters (~ 70 ft) is currently considered the limiting depth for offshore wind installations using monopile foundation designs.