321 Gigawatts of Wind Power Awaits Exploitation Off Michigan’s Shores
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 10. 6.08
Normally when grand statements are made about a nation’s offshore wind power potential the mind naturally conjures up briny images. In the US however, thanks to the Great Lakes though, another area of potential offshore wind development exists sans saltwater. A new report from Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute says that, in Michigan alone, offshore wind power developments could generate 10 times more power than the state currently generates from fossil fuel sources: That’s 321,000 megawatts of electricity. There’s a catch though:
Figure Doesn’t Take Into Account Myriad Concerns
Like most of these power estimates, that is just the state’s potential based on wind speed maps, depths of water, etc. The report makes it clear that not all of that potential power may be feasible to exploit:
These projections do not account for potential areas of concern such as shipping lanes, sensitive aquatic habitat, historic sites (such as shipwrecks and others), recreational fishing needs, commercial fishing needs, transportation corridors, migratory bird routes, and potential areas subject to tribal and other treaty concerns, and other natural resource management concerns.
image: NREL
Michigan is one of the few states in the country with any chance of developing inland offshore wind power, as it controls 40% of the surface area of the lakes under its jurisdiction, the report indicates. An additional benefit of wind turbine development in the Great Lakes is that, compared to salt water, there is less potential for corrosion.
via :: Detroit Free Press and :: New Energy News
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Sounds good, but my first question was: how bad is it for the habitat? Is it just a temporary disruption or does it really mess things up?
And can the turbines withstand it when the water goes crazy, like it does sometimes?
WooHoo Michigan!!
One other advantage that Michigan could exploit would be lots of out of work auto builders - their skill set applies to production of wind turbines as well.
Just a couple weeks ago the state government here passed a law that would mandate 10% of our energy from renewables by 2015, not a very lofty goal. The other problem with this legislation was that it guarantees a 90% monopoly to the two main electric companies in the state, "to insure profitability of future constructed power plants" - great.
Oh well.... At least Bush signed the Great Lakes Water Compact on friday.
Notice that this map is at a turbine height of 50m. It is likely that any sort of significant development would use 70+m towers which makes the amount of wind power extractable even greater.
Here is how I see this panning out:
Wind turbines are networked to each other in the wind farm via hydraulic lines. The turbines themselves don't have generators, just hydraulic IVTs. The hydraulic fluid could simply be freshwater. At a central point in the wind farm, the hydraulic lines converge at a generator that sends power to the shore via HVDC
Yay michigan. i use to live just 20 miles south of mich in Indiana so more wind farms in my area would be great
Ideas like this are needed for the people of Michigan. A big plus would be the jobs that would be created and the income from the jobs that this long suffering state badly needs. While the rest of the United States are just entering a recession, Michigan has been in one for the last two years.