Offshore wind energy costs are higher now than other forms of new power generation, but those costs should decline as the new U.S. industry grows, a report to the Virginia Offshore Wind Development Authority said.

The all-in cost for power from offshore wind generators would be $243 per 1,000 kilowatt-hoursaccording to the report, which was based on U.S. Department of Energy figures.

For the same amount of power, the report said, the cost would be $211 with solar photovoltaic systems, $125 with combustion turbines, $114 using advanced nuclear generation, $113 with biomass energy, $109 with advanced coal plants, $97 using land-based wind systems, and $66 with combined-cycle turbine technology.

Offshore wind energy is probably the largest renewable resource available for Virginia, said Guy Chapman, Dominion Resources Inc.’s director of renewable research and program development.

“It’s one that we can technically work with,” Chapman said. “We just have to get the costs down.”

Dominion Resources produced the cost review at the authority’s request.

Based on the federal Annual Energy Outlook 2011, offshore wind costs are 50 percent higher this year compared with the 2010 outlook costs, the report said.

European pressures to meet renewable energy goals and the location of new European wind farms in deeper waters have helped drive steady increases in offshore wind-project costs, Chapman said.

And higher costs are also consistent with first-of-a-kind projects, officials said.

The Richmond-based energy company, which has intentionally spread its power generation across multiple sources, believes that as a supply chain develops, the price of offshore wind turbine systems will decline.

Dominion Virginia Power, a Dominion Resources subsidiary, also said Thursday it will make a preliminary study of building a high-voltage underwater transmission line from Virginia Beach into the Atlantic Ocean to support multiple offshore wind farms.

“An undersea transmission line project will be a key to getting wind generation from the Atlantic Ocean to our customers,” said Scot C. Hathaway, the company’s vice president of transmission.

“It makes sense for us to begin a preliminary scoping study of a transmission line and how it could make the offshore wind industry in Virginia viable,” Hathaway said, “without regard to issues of rates, timing and integration into the … regional transmission grid.”

Dominion Virginia Power plans to complete the study this year. The State Corporation Commission would have to approve such a power-line project, and the federal government would have to agree to offshore leases for the wind farms.

The utility has said it could bring up to 1,500 megawatts of electricity ashore at Virginia Beach if wind farms were built in the Atlantic Ocean.

That much energy would be comparable to the generation from a large electric power station. However, because wind does not blow steadily, a 4,500-megawatt installation — nearly 1,000 wind turbines — would be needed to produce 1,500 megawatts reliably.

The state’s largest electric company, Dominion Virginia Power has about 2.3 million customers.

By Peter Bacque (timesdispatch)

Source: timesdispatch, April 01, 2011

• pros and cons of offshore wind energy
• kema offshore wind uk
• value chain offshore wind
• offshore wind in dumas texas
• pros and cons of offshore wind power