Canada’s offshore winds could power Eastern Canada

Canada’s offshore winds could power Eastern Canada

Postby Oscar » Sun Feb 06, 2022 8:40 am

Canada’s offshore winds could power Eastern Canada

[ https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazine ... ind-power/ ]

February 3, 2022

EXCERPT:

"The offshore wind regime of Atlantic Canada is stronger than that of northern Europe and the United Kingdom. Moreover, compared to the U.S. northeast coast, Canada has access to a much larger offshore area with stronger wind speeds. The available power of this inexhaustible resource is huge. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has estimated the technically feasible wind power potential along the U.S. Atlantic coast at 1,100 GW, which is more than 10 times the total electrical power now generated by all the provinces in Eastern Canada. Given the higher mean wind speeds and the greater resource area of the Atlantic provinces, Canada’s offshore wind power potential is likely to be substantially greater than the United States.

The cost of electricity from offshore wind has fallen dramatically in recent years as developers have installed larger and more efficient turbines. The documented first-year (2022) price for delivery of offshore wind generation and renewable energy certificates under the Vineyard Wind power purchase agreement (PPA) is between US$65 and US$74 per MWh, which converts to below 10 cents Canadian per kWh. The last U.K. auction awarded 5.5 GW of new offshore wind projects at roughly seven cents Canadian per kWh.

A significant problem remains. Wind power, like solar energy, is intermittent, so utility-scale energy storage systems are essential. However, megawatt-scale lithium-ion batteries are rapidly increasing in size as costs fall. The first, in 2017, was Tesla’s spectacular 100 MW battery in Australia near Adelaide. Four years later, Florida Power and Light powered up a battery with a 409 MW capacity at the Manatee Energy Storage Center in Florida capable of delivering 900 MWh of energy. But batteries have a short duration, storing electricity for only a few hours. For longer duration storage, pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is the best option. . . . . "
Oscar
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