The planned offshore wind project in the Gulf of Mexico got off to a very slow start after bidders decided to sit out a BOEM auction.
The Gulf of Mexico has some circumstances that require. Wind speeds most of the time are lower than along the Atlantic coast, which means taller structures are necessary. But then, every once in a while, wind speeds are excessive when hurricanes hit the area. In an interesting coincidence, the BOEM auction fell on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. In addition, Hurricane Idalia is currently working its way up the west coast of Florida and threatening to become a Category 4 storm.
Engineers need to design turbines that can harvest enough wind to be profitable yet are able to withstand high winds, something they refer to as “a challenging design optimization problem.” For that, a new class of turbines will be needed.
Jobs in the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico are notoriously dangerous, Milliken Biven, formerly of BOEM, told. “There really is no offshore safety program in the Gulf of Mexico. Federal regulators don’t really have one. If you want to make offshore wind jobs safe, you have to make all offshore jobs safe. We’re a long way off.”
Offshore wind could also be a boon to poor communities in the Gulf which have long been harmed by fossil fuel pollution, but the bureau did not go far enough to make that a reality, said Kendall Dix, the national policy director at
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