“Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the east and west coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced Wednesday by the Biden administration,” the Guardian reported on Wednesday, October 13, 2021, adding, “The projects are part of Joe Biden’s plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, generating enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes.”
In addition, the Biden administration wants to develop at least 25 gigawatts of renewable power on federal lands from wind and solar over the next 4 years, the Guardian said. (Read story here.)
Wind power comes with costs, though. The turbine blades kill birds, and offshore wind farms can interfere with commercial fishing operations. Also, to help fight global warming, the wind farms would have to replace existing fossil fuel plants (most of which now run on natural gas), not just add to existing power supplies.
Offshore wind farms also are controversial, and sometimes opposed, because of their scenic impacts. Like all power generation projects, wind farms are intrusive (see image below).
A better solution could be space based systems. Space based systems have huge potential, and they may have a longer life time. Maintained these ground based wind and solar can have long lifetimes, but often they go to the dump far earlier than their advertised life time.
Great. Now design one, and cost it.