Pacific Northwest Ocean Energy
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 Columbia would eventually generate 700 MW if successful.
Over 30 wave and tidal energy projects are in progress or proposed on the Northwest Pacific coast (click for map). 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.
