Caribbean island starts offshore surveys with plan for floating wind-to-hydrogen production
Caribbean Island Starts Offshore Surveys with Plan for Floating Wind-to-Hydrogen Production | Offshore Wind
Caribbean Island Starts Offshore Surveys with Plan for Floating Wind-to-Hydrogen Production
Fugro’s survey vessel Fugro Brasilis has arrived at the Port of Willemstad in Curaçao ahead of offshore surveys the company will perform as the Curaçao government is working on identifying areas for floating wind development.
The work, scheduled to start today (17 July) and take place until 29 July, follows a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the Curaçao government and the Dutch Minister for Climate and Energy signed this May and is one of the first steps towards Curaçao’s aims to enable green hydrogen production using wind energy and create export capacity for clean fuels.
The ultimate goal is for the Caribbean island to become a regional leader in wind energy-to-green hydrogen production, according to a press release from the Curaçao government, which says the basis for this is a study carried out by the Dutch organisation for applied scientific research TNO that found that Curaçao, due to its geographical location and weather conditions, has a unique opportunity for wind energy generation at maximum efficiency.
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The offshore investigations to be carried out by Fugro are part of the current initial phase of exploring the possibilities and feasibility, as well as preferred options.
The seabed survey, located within the borders of Curaçao’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), will collect preliminary data necessary to identify and delineate areas that are most suitable from a geophysical perspective to be considered as sites for the installation of floating wind turbines.
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.