Could Deep-Water Wind Farms Solve Energy Problems?

Behind the scenes in the U.S. and in Europe, the race is on to build the world’s first deep-water wind farms, ones that would operate on floating platforms in waters hundreds of feet deep, like oil rigs found in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

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About 78 percent of the nation’s electricity is consumed by people on the East and West coasts and along the Great Lakes, all places with enormous wind potential.

The potential in the U.S. and elsewhere has drawn a number of players into the race.

Boston-based Blue H USA is seeking permission to put a demonstration floating turbine in federal waters 23 miles off the coast of Massachusetts’ Martha’s Vineyard.

Blue H’s affiliate, Blue H Technologies BV in Denmark, has a 2⁄ 3-scale demonstration turbine operating off southern Italy and has proposed a full-scale prototype off France. It is also part of a consortium of companies that has proposed building a wind farm on floating platforms in the North Sea, with the first turbines being constructed as soon as 2013.

Elsewhere, the Norwegian company StatoilHydro is building a pilot wind turbine to be installed off Norway next year and tested over a two-year period. StatoilHydro says the windmill will be able to be placed in depths from 350 feet to more than 2,000 feet.

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Erecting wind turbines in shallow-water sites is relatively simple. Huge steel stakes are driven into the ocean bottom to ground turbines. But that’s not feasible farther offshore, where winds are stronger.

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Placing turbines far offshore also eliminates the eyesore factor for people who might object to large towers in their view, he said.

In addition to the technical challenge of building 300-foot towers 10 to 20 miles offshore, developers must find out how best to route power back to land through cables buried under the ocean floor.

Shipping lanes, marine mammals, fishing boats, seabirds and even airplanes, and how their radar would be affected by ocean towers, have to be considered.

There are also the financial costs, regulatory obstacles and hurricanes.