Comments on: Gunfleet Sands III Hosts Next Generation Offshore Wind Turbines http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/17/gunfleet-sands-iii-hosts-next-generation-offshore-wind-turbines/ Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More. Sun, 28 Dec 2014 10:48:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 By: Bob_Wallace http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/17/gunfleet-sands-iii-hosts-next-generation-offshore-wind-turbines/#comment-182032 Wed, 18 Sep 2013 02:52:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=56440#comment-182032 At this point, in the US at least, it’s best not to ask that question. First turbines/farms will be very expensive. We have zero infrastructure or experience.

In Europe the cost of offshore seems to be around 20c/kWh. But they’re fairly new in this field as well.

Estimates for the Cape Cod project were running just under 20c/kWh.

Onshore in the US has dropped from around 38c to 6c over 30 years. Offshore probably won’t get that cheap because installation and maintenance costs will be higher. But I’d bet cost drop closer to a dime than stay where they are.

It may turn out that second generation floaters will be competitive with onshore. We’ll have the cables and harbor facilities in place. We’ll be able to build the towers under ideal conditions and tow them into place in good weather. Offshore turbines are likely to be so large that we’ll service them via helicopter.

Then when you add in the extra hours of wind and having a lot of wind during peak demand hours, the math will look better.

]]> By: sean http://cleantechnica.com/2013/09/17/gunfleet-sands-iii-hosts-next-generation-offshore-wind-turbines/#comment-182031 Wed, 18 Sep 2013 02:36:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=56440#comment-182031 what’s the LCOE of offshore wind these days? (obviously varies with the site, but for example in this case, do we have any idea of where the cost is at? how much more to go offshore?)

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