Offshore Wind Is Pricey, But Comes With Extra Benefits

We love the concept of offshore wind: it’s out of sight, and it harvests huge wind resources that are  unobstructed by buildings, trees, and mountains.  The issue, obviously, is the price tag.  According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (part of the Department of Energy), the projected LCOE (levelized cost of energy) for offshore wind in 2018 will be more than two and one-half times that of onshore.  

But here’s an extra benefit that needs to be priced into the equation: the capacity to reduce the severity of storms.  Extracting some of the kinetic energy on the periphery of hurricanes goes a long way to diminish the damage done by wind, and it also decreases the height and intensity of the ocean waves that batter the shoreline.  The article linked above provides some estimates in terms of reduced damages in the case of Katrina and Sandy that would have been experienced had there been significant deployment of offshore wind in advance of those storms, and it’s pretty impressive stuff.