I’m sure you’ve heard of climate change and how important it is for the world to change its ways, but what should everyone really be doing? And what are the options?

Discussions about a transition to clean, renewable energy started in the 1970s. Today, out of all the renewable sources that exist, wind energy has been a top performer, being one of the most efficient sources because of its advancing technology and the low ratio of energy input to output.

Relying on the invisible wind currents circulating the world, wind power can come in many forms and shapes and can be installed onshore or offshore. Onshore wind requires specific spaces on land that may not necessarily be available and can be noisy while offshore wind uses areas off the coast and deploys larger turbines while taking advantage of more predictable wind patterns with higher wind speeds to generate more clean energy.

The first offshore wind farm was installed in 1991 by Orsted in Vindeby, Denmark as a pilot project to try to build wind turbines at sea. It was originally thought to be a failure and impractical by many scientist who were focusing their energy on improving the technology renewable energy sources that were well established at that time. However, the farm proved them wrong as it was able to provide 5 Megawatts of power, enough to support 2200 Danish homes. 

The success of the pilot program to operate wind turbines offshore led the industry to grow, which led other countries like the UK, Sweden, The Netherlands, and Germany to hop on the offshore wind bandwagon. The potential of offshore wind in Southeast Asia and South America alone was calculated to provide 3.1 TW of energy in 2019, and if North America is included, that number would increase.

If offshore wind has been shown to be a new and promising source of renewable energy, why has its adoption been so slow outside of Europe?

The biggest reason for delays in offshore wind transition outside of Europe is the current energy and environmental policies. Current policies require several rounds of approval in order for an offshore wind farm to start its construction process. For example, the Vineyard Wind 1 project, aiming to build 62 turbines, supplying 800 MW of power off the coast of Massachusetts submitted its first site assessment plan in March of 2017 but was approved for construction and operation in May of 2021. After four and a half years of being pushed and pulled by the policies, the Vineyard Wind 1 Project has now moved on to surveying the seabed, researching monitoring the marine mammals, and partnering with construction companies for the support and the building of the wind farm.

However, don’t be discouraged by this example.

Many countries have been slowly realizing the potential benefits of having offshore wind farms, changing their policies to allow for these farms to be installed more easily.

In this beat, I will explain the benefits of installing offshore wind farms, the technology behind these farms, as well as the policies that make it challenging to do so.