The North Pacific Ocean, in the area northwest of Washington
State in the USA and west of British Columbia in Canada, has some of the
strongest winds and waves in the world. Wind speeds are Class 5-6 on
average and Class 7 in winter. Waves are long period (20-25 sec) and high
(average 2m, up to 10m near the coasts and higher offshore). 5 MW / km2
is a significant underestimate of the renewable power that could be generated
from this resource, but it is a good working estimate.
Grays Harbor, Washington is on the outer coast of Washington
state in the USA. It is the only coastal deep-water port north of San
Francisco. On the North Pacific map a square can be drawn of 2000 km per
side, covering 4 million km2. The eastern tip is at Grays
Harbor; a ship leaving there would reach the western tip of the square in about
5 days. In this square is at least 20 million MW of renewable ocean
energy. In comparison the total generating capacity of the USA in 2006 was
about 1 million MW.
The Pacific Ocean off of Grays Harbor has very strong winds.
The figures below show the wind velocities at 10-minute intervals for the
nearby
NOAA
Cape Elizabeth ocean data buoy, adjusted for 80m height (wind turbine hub
height) using correction factors supplied by
NREL. This is
Class 6-7 wind, the best class for wind generation. And unlike the East
and Gulf coasts, the NW coast does not have severe hurricanes that require much
sturdier turbines.
Additional wind and wave data is available from the
NOAA Columbia River buoys south of Grays Harbor. An offshore wind project in the region is already underway.
The Naikun Wind Project in
the Queen Charlotte Islands of northern British olumbia would eventually
generate 700 MW if successful.
Over 30 wave and tidal energy projects are in progress or
proposed on the Northwest Pacific coast. Most of their project descriptions are online at
FERC. For descriptions of many of them see the
Electric Power Research
Institute's Ocean Energy project. The State of Oregon has declared its
intention to be the national
leader in wave energy
development. The
Pacific NW Economic Region, a US-Canada policy organization, is coordinating
regional interests in ocean and river energy. The Washington Legislature
has passed a
bill
to streamline permitting for wave and tidal energy development and to create a
Center of Excellence in Hydrokinetic Energy.
It is widely believed that the west coast of
North America is deep near shore. But in the NW USA, along the Oregon and
Washington coasts, it is quite shallow. At Grays Harbor, the depth at the
3-mile state waters limit is 70 ft/22m. At 10m / 16km depth is 190 ft/30m.
The new offshore wind turbines are being installed in water to 150 ft depth and
designs for deeper installations are underway. Floating turbines are
proposed for depths up to 600 feet.
The map at left shows the coast off Grays Harbor
mapped in 10-km squares, each with 100 km2 area. Within the
100m depth contour line there are 30 squares representing 3000 km2
area. 100m or 330 ft depth is well within the construction depth of
existing offshore oil and gas platforms or future offshore wind turbines.
We know there is at least 5 MW / km2
of wind energy that could be harvested soon with wind turbines. If each km
has a large wind turbine the field would produce 15,000 MW. This is about
50% of the energy generation of the State of Washington from all sources.
This energy is very close to shore. Further
offshore, floating platforms are proposed for
generating hydrogen from
electrolysis of seawater,
powered by wind and wave
energy. Hydrogen generators can be installed in tanker ships for Liquid
Natural Gas. The tankers can be moored to buoys that have power cables to
wind/wave turbines. The power from the wind and waves runs the
electrolysis unit on the tanker. Hydrogen is produced under pressure and stored
in the LNG tanks. It can then be brought to
shore and burned in thermal power plants whose output is power and hot water
(the only emissions from burning hydrogen).
There are over 4 million km2 within a 5 day cruise of
Grays Harbor where this could happen:
A sustainable community
development project, a private-public partnership, in Grays Harbor could develop this incredible resource.
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