Oct 09 2008

The Race to Harness Offshore Winds

California was a leader in the early days of wind power, with the development of huge wind farms at Altamont Pass and Tehachapi Pass. Now a San Francisco-based startup, Principle Power, is racing to become the first U.S. firm to develop a wind farm offshore.

Principle Power, which also has an office in Seattle, recently signed an agreement with an Oregon agency to begin work on a phased development of a 150 megawatt floating wind power plant off the coast of Tillamook County.

Unlike existing offshore wind farms in Europe, which mount turbines on large steel tubes embedded tens of meters into the seabed, Principle Power plans to use unique floating platforms designed by Berkeley-based Marine Innovation & Technology. The project as currently envisioned would consist of 30 floating turbines, each with 5 MW of capacity.

The attraction of putting wind farms offshore may not be immediately obvious, given the harsh conditions and complicated logistics. But winds often blow harder and more consistently offshore than on land. Site acquisition costs are typically much lower offshore. And offshore wind farms may actually be closer to load centers than their terrestrial counterparts.

Principle Power has lots of competition. A recent report by the Department of Energy says the eight or nine proposals currently under development in state or federal waters total 1,500 MW.

Perhaps the best known is Cape Wind, whose plans to site turbines off of Nantucket have been stalled by esthetic objections.

Garden State Offshore Energy this month was awarded rights by New Jersey regulators to build a $1 billion wind farm off the southern coast of that state. Other projects are afoot off the coasts of Delaware and Rhode Island.

The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service is reportedly putting the finishing touches on a rule to govern leasing of offshore lands for alternative-energy production, which will be a boon to developers.

Principle Power has a long way to go to raise money and prove that it can deliver. As the Department of Energy report noted, "the commercialization of offshore energy faces many technical, regulatory, socioeconomic, and political barriers." But since when did that ever stop dedicated entrepreneurs from trying?

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