Engineers enlist weather model to optimize offshore wind plan

www.sciencedaily.com
20 Mar 2012

ScienceDaily: Politics aside, most energy experts agree that cheap, clean, renewable wind power holds great potential to help the world satisfy energy needs while reducing harmful greenhouse gases. wind farms placed offshore could play a large role in meeting such challenges, and yet no offshore wind farms exist today in the United States.

In a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters, a team of engineers at Stanford has harnessed a sophisticated weather model to recommend optimal placement of four interconnected wind farms off the coast of the Eastern United States, a region that accounts for 34% of the nation's electrical demand and 35% of CO₂ emissions.

"It is the first time anyone has used high-resolution meteorological data to plan the placement of offshore wind grid", said senior author Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. "And this sophistication has provided a deeper level of understanding to the grid plan".

Beginning with 12 energetic potential locations, the engineers winnowed down the sites to four optimal sites. Total maximum capacity of the interconnected grid is 2000 MWs, roughly equivalent to the yearly capacity of one-and-a-half conventional coal-fired power plants. Each farm would have approximately 100 turbines, delivering an individual maximum capacity of 500 MWs.

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