Are offshore wind turbines coming to Washington?
Wind turbines in Washington state. You see them surrounding Ellensburg and the tri-cities. But now people are asking the question, do we need offshore wind turbines for Washington state?
According to crosscut.com,
‘Last spring, the state legislature allocated $625,000 to study developing an offshore wind turbine industry. Of that, $375,000 would go to Washington Maritime Blue, a cooperative of state businesses formed to develop an ocean-based economy, to conduct outreach, workshops and studies on developing a turbine supply chain. The rest – $250,000 — would go to the state Commerce department to start mapping plans to develop that same supply chain.’
Some in Washington state government are wondering if it's possible to have offshore turbines. If so, where does the funding come from? That will probably be decided by Washington state voters this fall. The state's cap-and-invest program is on the block for this November and voters will decide whether it continues. If it does well, then there is our financing for offshore wind turbines. The only other question is do we have the will to do it?
Wind turbine technology has been around since 1991 and China, Great Britain and German ventures represent about 75% of all offshore wind turbine generated electricity.
An interesting byproduct of offshore wind farms is the increase in local fish habitat. Fish like to hang around structures and of course, algae and barnacles also gather. Another byproduct Are the cables carrying the energy from the turbine to the shore generating magnetic fields that radiate a foot to two feet around the cable. Apparently fish like that as well. Local Rhode Island fishermen like to do their fishing around the wind farms because the catch is more plentiful.
There was a proposal put forward to have a study done to determine any other upsides or downsides to offshore turbines off Washington state shores but funding for that has been blocked in committee.
I personally am in favor of any renewable resources for generating electricity. But what I really want to see is a way to store that electricity so it can be used when it's needed.
Are offshore wind turbines in Washington’s future? | Cascade PBS News (crosscut.com)
The multimillion-dollar fight over WA’s cap-and-invest program | Cascade PBS News (crosscut.com)
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