• Lack of marshaling ports hindering offsh

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Tue Apr 12 22:30:42 2022
    Lack of marshaling ports hindering offshore wind industry
    Study finds there aren't enough large waterside sites necessary to build
    and house turbines

    Date:
    April 12, 2022
    Source:
    University of Delaware
    Summary:
    A new study finds that the nation's existing and planned marshaling
    ports, the assembly areas critical to building and deploying
    offshore wind turbines, will be insufficient by 2023 to meet
    commitments and will fail to meet projected demand through 2050.



    FULL STORY ==========================================================================
    As the United States works to shift more of its power generation to
    renewable resources, University of Delaware researchers Sara Parkison and Willett Kempton have co-authored a paper in the journal Energy Policy
    that sheds light into the infrastructure required to meet targets for
    offshore wind power generation.


    ==========================================================================
    In March 2021, the Biden Administration announced a target goal of
    deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy in the United States by
    2030 and 110 gigawatts by 2050. States up and down the East Coast already
    have planned or have committed to producing as much as 40 gigawatts of
    offshore wind power - - enough to power approximately 13 million homes --
    by 2040.

    So, what's holding the clean energy economy back? The UD report reveals
    that the nation's existing and planned marshaling ports, the assembly
    areas critical to building and deploying offshore wind turbines, will
    be insufficient by 2023 to meet state and federal commitments. Further,
    the available marshaling port area will meet less than half of projected
    demand through 2050.

    "This study is not an off-the-cuff estimate," said Parkison, a doctoral candidate in marine science and policy and 2022 Knauss Fellow. "It is a detailed analysis informed by insights from industry experts, including
    vessel operators, port operators, developers and people who have been
    doing this for 20 to 30 years. And it shows that the industry is facing
    a real bottleneck.

    "Stated simply, the amount of marshaling area that we have is too little
    and the amount that is planned will not be enough, creating a significant shortfall that will have ramifications on the growth of the offshore
    wind industry." Supporting a growing industry


    ========================================================================== Parkison explained that to prepare for the growth of offshore wind
    turbines in the U.S., it's necessary to think about using domestic
    supplies and infrastructure, rather than solely relying on an
    international global supply chain. Currently, however, U.S.-based infrastructure is not robust enough to meet demand.

    Major supply chain hurdles facing the U.S. offshore wind industry were
    recently reinforced by a National Renewable Energy Laboratory report,
    which echoed the risks of relying on a foreign supply chain as well as
    the shortage of U.S.

    ports capable of marshaling offshore wind turbines. The UD study goes a
    step further and quantifies how many acres per year are needed to meet
    U.S. offshore wind power targets on time -- showing how big the port
    shortage actually is.

    A marshaling port provides a staging ground where turbine parts for a
    structure as tall as the Eiffel Tower can be housed, partially assembled
    or readied before they are installed in the ocean. The area is both
    challenging to locate and to develop.

    A 2020 market analysis by Parkison, Kempton and nine undergraduate
    students, completed with funding from UD's Office Of Economic Innovation
    and Partnerships' Spin In program, found that a 1-gigawatt offshore wind project required 54 acres of marshaling area over 2 years.

    In this latest report, the researchers compared the 2020 data against
    what marshaling ports will be available, how much area they supply and
    whether that supply will be able to support turbine deployment demand
    over the next 20 to 30 years. The short answer -- it won't.



    ==========================================================================
    In fact, the total planned and existing marshaling ports in the U.S. are expected to provide less than half of what will be needed to support
    the development of turbines over the next three decades. Complicating
    matters, this amount of available marshaling area will be strained to
    support multiple competitors vying to use the same marshaling ports,
    vessels and other resources to achieve their goals and timelines.

    To avoid a domino effect, where delays on one project cause a cascade
    of disruptions elsewhere, the report offers three simple solutions:
    * Invest in more marshaling ports sooner rather than later, * Expand
    available marshaling area, and * Use existing and planned area in
    smarter ways.

    Invest, expand and stay smart Europe has been in the offshore wind
    energy business for 30 years. Its infrastructure is mature and includes fine-tuned methods for rapidly deploying offshore wind turbines safely, efficiently and economically. For comparison, the existing and planned
    U.S. marshaling ports comprise less than a third of the area and
    deployment capacity of Europe's top three most used ports for marshaling.

    "And yet, in the U.S. we're looking to install twice as much power
    capacity over a shorter amount of time than the EU has accomplished over
    the last 20 years," Parkison said.

    To have the best chance of success, it will be important to use near-term alternatives while building out as much marshaling area as possible. The
    U.S.

    will need to "make do" with existing marshaling area by using alternative methods, such as feeder barges situated offshore that can ferry equipment
    from port to installation vessels located at sea -- kind of like a relay
    for turbine parts. The approach, however, is not without its hurdles.

    "Feeder barges are in limited supply, less safe and take longer to
    finish installations, causing other problems further down the line,"
    explained Parkison.

    Resulting delays could mean fees and penalties for developers that need
    to extend port leases beyond agreed-upon dates and will cause setbacks in "turning on" the power -- all of which can hinder other projects in the pipeline. It will have ramifications for meeting other loftier ambitions,
    such as the federal targets of 30 gigawatts by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050,
    too.

    "At this rate, those targets won't be met," Parkison said. In the bigger
    scheme of things, it also will mean delays in the nationwide, multi-level attempt to try and mitigate climate change.

    Doing more turbine assembly in port would provide less dependency on
    vessels that themselves are not keeping pace with growing turbine
    sizes. But in-port assembly methods also point to a need for more
    marshaling room for today and for future growth.

    "You need ports that are capable of not only marshaling 10- or 12-megawatt turbines, but also moving towards the capacity for 15-, 20-, 25-megawatt turbines that are going to outpace what we currently have," said Parkison.

    Upgrading smaller ports is a start. For example, a 30-acre marshaling
    port already exists in New England and there is a 60-acre port planned
    for New Jersey.

    Considering larger ports will also be necessary. Marshaling ports around
    100 acres are a more economically sound and logistically advantageous
    method of getting turbines out to sea more quickly and safely than some
    of the alternative methods.

    According to Parkison, European developers have stated they will travel
    200 miles for a sizable port that allows them to use efficient deployment methods.

    The conceptual Delaware port suggested in the 2020 UD market analysis is
    an example where 100 acres of marshaling area could be achieved. And while
    some have wondered if having a 100-acre marshaling port in Delaware and
    another 60- acre marshaling port across the Delaware Bay in New Jersey
    is too much, Parkison disagrees.

    "If you look at the sum of all existing and planned area, it still
    amounts to less than half the area that's needed," she said. "So, neither marshaling port will pull business away from the other; instead they'll
    both be contributing to a massive market need." Transitioning to a
    cleaner economy will take commitment, cooperation and collaboration,
    but the benefits to the nation, and planet, would be many.

    "Meeting the Biden Administration's targets on time means that we can
    sooner provide an alternative energy source to displace more of our fossil-fuel- burning resources," Parkison said. "It also means another
    source of energy security -- more energy produced at home that's less
    reliant on international geopolitics." The costs of waiting are greater
    than just financial or logistical. They include things people might
    not typically consider, such as the social cost of carbon to health,
    ecosystems and sea level rise, a particular concern in Delaware.

    Claire Richer, director of Offshore Wind with the American Clean Power Association, called the report a useful tool to help justify funding
    for expansion of offshore wind infrastructure to Congress.

    "The report demonstrates the need for a substantially resourced Port Infrastructure Development Plan in a budget reconciliation bill such as
    Build Back Better," said Richer.

    Kempton, UD professor of marine science and policy and associate director
    and founder of the Center for Research in Wind (CReW), agreed, adding,
    "The report lays out the overall infrastructure needed for offshore wind deployment, quantifies shortfalls and identifies precisely what is needed
    to overcome them.

    This is significant because it provides states and port developers the
    specific guidance needed to build the infrastructure to meet state and
    federal offshore wind targets."

    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Delaware. Original
    written by Karen B.

    Roberts. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Sara B. Parkison, Willett Kempton. Marshaling ports required to
    meet US
    policy targets for offshore wind power. Energy Policy, 2022; 163:
    112817 DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112817 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220412141022.htm

    --- up 6 weeks, 1 day, 10 hours, 50 minutes
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)