A new analysis by Stanford researchers reveals that there is enough offshore wind along the U.S. East Coast to meet the electricity demands of at least one-third of the country.
The scientists paid special attention to the Maine-to-Virginia corridor; the historical lack of strong hurricanes in the region makes it a favourable site for offshore wind turbines. They found that turbines placed there could satisfy the peak-time power needs of these states for three seasons of the year (summer is the exception). The researchers used a weather model to generate five years of hourly wind speeds at 90 meters above sea surface. The team inserted about 140,000 wind turbines into their computer model, each capable of generating 5MW of electricity. After factoring in standard transmission losses and turbine array inefficiencies, the U.S. East Coast offshore winds were found to produce from 965 to 1,372 terawatt hours of electricity annually, enough to satisfy the demands of one-third of the United States, or all of the East Coast.
Source: Stanford University
The scientists paid special attention to the Maine-to-Virginia corridor; the historical lack of strong hurricanes in the region makes it a favourable site for offshore wind turbines. They found that turbines placed there could satisfy the peak-time power needs of these states for three seasons of the year (summer is the exception). The researchers used a weather model to generate five years of hourly wind speeds at 90 meters above sea surface. The team inserted about 140,000 wind turbines into their computer model, each capable of generating 5MW of electricity. After factoring in standard transmission losses and turbine array inefficiencies, the U.S. East Coast offshore winds were found to produce from 965 to 1,372 terawatt hours of electricity annually, enough to satisfy the demands of one-third of the United States, or all of the East Coast.
Source: Stanford University
