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
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