left: Potential
sites for offshore wind/wave farms (no proposal for such farms has
been made)
Grays
Harbor is located on the Pacific Ocean coast of Washington
state in the Northwest USA. It is about a 2.5-hour drive from Seattle.
The harbor is about 15 miles long and wide. It is the only deepwater outer
coast port north of San Francisco. Notable towns in the area include
Aberdeen and Hoquiam on the inland side of the harbor, and Ocean Shores and
Westport on the outer coast. The coast offshore is shallow for a long
distance. At the state 3-mile boundary the depth is about 80 feet.
At 10 miles the depth is about 180 feet.
Grays Harbor used to be a major economic center for the timber
and wood products industry. Major pulp and paper factories were supplied
by large power transmission lines, railyards and shipyards. There is
extensive industrial infrastructure suitable for offshore energy
development. It has a vigorous commercial and sport fishing
industry who work in one of the world's roughest oceans.
Offshore energy platforms will not compete with fishing; the
platforms are 150 feet in diameter and spaced about 3/4 mile apart -
leaving 99.99% per square mile available for fishing. The platform
legs under water create new artificial reefs that should support the
fisheries. However, the environmental concerns are real and
will be investigated in partnership with regulatory agencies and
local communities.
The area has many excellent assets to support
offshore energy generation. One is the unfinished nuclear power plant at
the Satsop Development Park.
This 2500 MW plant was abandoned to bankruptcy in the 1980s but not before the
transmission to the park was installed, including a 500 KV power line to the
regional transmission grid managed by the
Bonneville Power Administration. The Park is about
40 miles from the
beach at Ocean Shores.
Aerial view of Westport, Washington,
looking to the Southeast:
Aerial view of Ocean Shores,
Washington, looking south towards Westport across the Grays Harbor bay entrance.
An ocean renewable energy platform will be located at about the top
of the "O" if permissions and funding are obtained.
Grays Harbor is a location ideally suited to
be a base for ocean energy development off the coast. The community
strongly needs and wants economic development; there is extensive under-utilized
industrial capacity and a deep-water port; there is major transmission capacity
to Satsop and then to Aberdeen. Up to 700 MW could be transmitted from the
outer coast to Aberdeen by upgrading the existing transmission
corridor.
Grays Harbor is
unique in the world as the best possible place to demonstrate ocean renewable
energy technology in serious ocean - if it works here it will probably work
anywhere. This is an opportunity for sustainable economic
development supporting a region and eventually the whole
state of Washington. |
