WINTER 2025 OREGON STATE ENGINEERING 4 BOUNDLESS OFFSHORE WIND ENERGY FLOATING INTO THE COUNTRY’S FUTURE In 2023, wind turbines generated upwards of 425,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity in the United States, enough to run more than 39 million average American homes. Wind is the country’s largest renewable energy source, representing about 10% of all electricity production. Most of it comes from landbased wind turbines; the remainder, a negligible amount, comes from offshore turbines along the East Coast. Yet our offshore wind energy has barely been tapped, according to the Wind Energy Technologies Office, which estimates that potential U.S. offshore wind power capacity exceeds 4,200 gigawatts, or 13,500 terawatthours annually. That’s three times the amount of electricity consumed every year in the United States. “Wind over land can be disrupted by terrain, buildings, trees, and other irregularities that slow it down and diminish its quality as an energy source,” said Bryson Robertson, professor of coastal and ocean engineering and director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center. “These aren’t factors with offshore wind.” There is a catch: Two-thirds of those unimpeded offshore winds blow over West Coast waters ranging from 500 to 1,500 meters deep. Fixed-bottom wind turbines are limited to depths of about 60 meters. Anything deeper and they must be mounted on floating platforms moored to the seabed — a more technically challenging and more costly solution. A handful of floating wind turbines have been operating in European waters for several years, most prominently in the North Sea. Their combined power output is modest (though it’s on the rise), and they operate in water depths ranging from 60 to 300 meters, but which skew toward the shallower end. “The water is much deeper off the West Coast; the waves are larger, longer, and more energetic,” said Pedro Lomonaco, director of Oregon State’s O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab and a research team member. “Those factors have to be considered when designing and testing floating platforms. The designs used in the North Sea may be suitable for those locations, but they may not be optimal for our area.” But designing, building, deploying, and testing operating prototypes is prohibitively expensive, logistically difficult, and time-consuming. Scaleddown simulations offer a “Wind over land can be disrupted by terrain, buildings, trees, and other irregularities that slow it down and diminish its quality as an energy source — these aren’t factors with offshore wind.” Bryson Robertson, professor of coastal and ocean engineering and director of the Pacific Marine Energy Center
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