The Importance Of Offshore Wind Energy

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Introduction:
Renewable technologies are our future. Limited resources such as oil and coal are only a stepping stone to get us to clean and sustainable technologies like photovoltaic, oceanic, geothermal, and wind electrical generators. For the past decade, the United States has been investing in many inland wind farms which are located in Class 3 areas. Wind speeds are categorized by classes, and Class 3 is the minimum before a wind farm is not worth the installation costs; Class 1 being far too low and Class 7 being extremely good. In the U.S. the highest wind speeds are around Class 4-5 and are located in the center of the country where these high wind speed areas are sparse and away from large cities which makes the wind energy their not
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According to the Global Wind Electricity Council, all of the U.S. offshore wind energy could supply the nation four times. This means we only need to line a fourth of our coasts with wind turbines to meat all of our energy …show more content…
The difficult one is the transmission lines so the power can get to land. There is a difficulty in having the power lines because of the ocean-water 's salt content which will corrode the cables very rapidly creating a very high upkeep. The environmental issue is that the electromagnetic properties of the cables transferring electricity affects the sea life. A study done by the U.S. Department of Energy concluded that there were affects on estuary and inland fish due to electric fields. The study focused on exposing fish to an electromagnetic field of about the same strength that a boat or a transmission line would release onto the fish. The study concluded that there were negative affects; such as slowing the rate at which eggs are fertilized, altering their behavior in response to alert triggers when under stress, and an alteration in their internal chemistry productions. The affects were small but noticeable enough to make the claim. Transmission lines from the wind turbines will be making very strong electric fields that will be in, or very close to, the ocean unlike inland power lines where they are buried or adjacent to the water. The turbine power lines would be much closer to the water meaning less interference of the electric fields. The sea life will also migrate around the turbines since it will act as an 'artificial reef ' (http://www.umces.edu/cbl/wind). This could be an environmental benefit;

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