A new report by two national laboratories finds that offshore wind could be generating as much as 33 GW of electricity for the western United States by 2050 and looks at how best to bring that power ashore.
The “West Coast Offshore Wind Transmission Study” also points out the region will need as much as 400 GW of new capacity by 2050, and that the floating infrastructure needed for the deep water off the West Coast presents engineering challenges.
Another, more immediate problem is not mentioned in the report: politics. The report was published Jan. 15, just five days before President Trump slapped an executive order of indefinite duration and as-yet indeterminate impact on offshore wind development in U.S. waters. (See Critics Slam Trump’s Freeze on New OSW Leases.)
Teams of researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory spent two years preparing the study.
They focused on a 9,265-square-mile region off northern California and southern Oregon where the wind is strongest (22 mph average), the water depth is tenable (4,265 feet maximum) and there is minimal overlap with protected zones, tribal communities and other potential conflicts.
They studied two transmission models:
A radial structure, where each wind farm is connected to one point on the coast, would be simpler to build but less versatile in operation, they found.
A backbone structure, in which wind farms are connected to each other at sea as well as to points of interconnection on land, would carry a higher upfront cost but would allow cheaper energy to be moved more efficiently across regions.
The researchers found that starting with a radial structure and expanding it into a backbone structure would present the best cost-benefit mix and result in savings that could equal $25 billion in 2024 dollars — mostly because it would allow grid regions to better share lower-cost energy such as hydropower and solar power.
Lead author Travis Douville, PNNL’s wind systems integration portfolio manager, said such an addition of offshore wind power also would boost resilience in the coastal region, as there are not many generators along the coast.
“With careful planning and coordination across multiple points in time, we can solve the question of how offshore wind generation and transmission could be developed on the West Coast for maximum benefit,” he said.
