Engineer floats plan to harness offshore wind power

Wind farms blanket the western half of Texas, turbine blades spinning across the Panhandle and Permian Basin, making the state the nation’s leader in generating electricity from wind.

But for most of the country, the greatest potential for wind energy lies offshore. Developers are pushing ahead with projects on the East Coast and elsewhere despite environmental concerns about fishing habitats, migratory bird paths and even the seaside views valued by tourists and coastal residents alike.

This activity is largely driven by requirements for utilities to include a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources. Beyond the environment, permitting and other concerns, investors also struggle with the high cost of offshore wind developments.

Now research by an engineer at Texas A&M University at Galveston aims to make the turbines less expensive and allow them to be moved farther from shore, reducing complaints about visual blight.

“Wind energy profits are razor thin,” said Bert Sweetman, associate professor of maritime systems engineering at A&M-Galveston. “Cost has to be a bigger issue than when you’re building an oil platform.”

More: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/07/28/research-seeks-power-from-the-sea-breeze/

Engineer floats plan to harness offshore wind power

Engineer floats plan to harness offshore wind power

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