Where will offshore wind farms be built? How far out to sea will they be, and how deep?
One of the largest offshore areas in the U.S. with shallow water is off Cape Cod, where a major wind farm has been proposed. Much of the rest of the U.S. coastline has at least some potential for wind development, but typically, turbine foundation costs increase rapidly with increasing water depth and wave height. The cost of connecting with utility power lines also increases rapidly as the distance from shore increases. Still, there are advantages to building wind farms further offshore. Wind speeds tend to be higher and the wind is steadier. This means that turbines built further offshore should capture more wind energy. Many hope that the technical challenges will be overcome and that in the future offshore wind farms will be built much further offshore, perhaps even on floating platforms at sea.
