Open AccessHow many offshore wind turbines does New England need?
Author(s) -
Livingston Hannah G.,
Lundquist Julie K.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1002/met.1969
Subject(s) - offshore wind power , wind power , renewable energy , grid , turbine , environmental science , marine engineering , submarine pipeline , electricity , meteorology , pumped storage hydroelectricity , electricity generation , sea breeze , production (economics) , power (physics) , oceanography , distributed generation , engineering , electrical engineering , geology , geography , economics , mechanical engineering , physics , geodesy , quantum mechanics , macroeconomics
The proliferation of countries and regions with 100% clean or renewable energy targets necessitates an analysis to determine the number of generating units and storage needed to meet real‐time electricity demand on the electric grid. The coastal areas of New England have the capacity to produce a large percentage of the region's energy needs with offshore wind turbines. Here we model offshore wind turbine power production data using MERRA‐2 reanalysis and lidar wind speed data sets. We compare this power production to the New England hourly grid demand over the course of one year. 2,000 10 MW offshore wind turbines could satisfy New England's grid demand for about 37% of the year. When combined with 55 GWh of storage, 2,000 turbines could satisfy grid demand for about 72% of the year.