DOI Declares Key Step Forward for 1st West Coast Offshore Wind Plan

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on February five announced an important step forward for the 1st offshore wind plan suggested for federal waters off the West Coast. DOI's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has given the green light for Principle Power, Incorporated to submit a formal project to build a 30-megawatt pilot plan using floating wind turbine technology offshore Coos Bay, Oregon.

Principle Power, Inc., will seek to location its plan within a 15-square-mile suggested lease area. The plan is designed to generate electricity from 5 floating "WindFloat" units, each equipped with a 6-megawatt offshore wind turbine. The facility, sited in about 1,400 feet of water, would be the 1st offshore wind plan suggested in federal waters off the West Coast and the 1st in the nation to use a floating structure to support offshore wind generation in the Outer Continental Shelf.

According to the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the West Coast holds an offshore capability of in excess of 800 gigawatts of wind energy potential, which is equivalent to in excess of 3 quarters of the nation's entire power generation capacity. The total U.S. deepwater wind energy resource potential is estimated to be nearly 2,000 gigawatts. See the DOI news release.

There are currently no comments for this story. Be the first to add a comment!
Click here to add a comment about this story.