Where does the Wind Blow? Investigating Offshore vs Onshore Wind

By Nik Zappia

Unknown to many, offshore windmills are a renewable source of energy that is often overlooked despite being better than their onshore counterparts. The difference between the two is that offshore windmills are placed far out into the ocean, typically around two hundred nautical miles from the coast, while onshore windmills are on land. Worldwide countries are utilizing offshore wind as a sustainable source of energy, including countries like the United Kingdom who use over two thousand turbines to generate energy. Meanwhile the United States only has seven active offshore windmills, showing that our use of offshore windmills could be improved to push more sustainable energy use. So, why should we focus on offshore windmills as a sustainable source of energy? Why not just build more onshore windmills? 

Offshore windmills have more advantages and less disadvantages than onshore windmills. One of the biggest criticisms of onshore windmills is the fact that they are large, loud, and ruin the scenery of the local area. Not to mention, windmill farms take up a lot of space on land. Offshore windmills share the same physical qualities however they are built far enough away from the land to the point that there is no concern of how it impacts the “scenery of the area”, or how it may contribute to noise pollution near towns. The use of land is especially important, since onshore farms take up a lot of land and offshore farms are built in the water so there is no concern for how it will take away limited land resources. Due to the isolated nature of offshore windmills they are able to be built with blades that are larger in size. This increases the energy production of the wind turbines because with larger blades more kinetic energy is created when the wind pushes the blades and therefore more energy will be supplied.

Implementing offshore windmills will not have as big of impacts on the local environment and ecosystems. Though it is important to note that offshore windmills do have impact on marine life and are still being studied for the negative consequences they have on these ecosystems. However, new improvements have allowed for offshore windmills to “float”, or be semi-submersible, so that they may take up less space in the ocean and therefore have less of an impact on the wildlife. These windmills will, of course, still be impacting groups of birds who may fly into the blades, but this is an issue that regular onshore windmills still face.

As with many other energy productions, the creation of offshore windmill farms means that there will be an opportunity to create a vast amount of jobs. The Biden administration estimates that over 44,000 jobs could be created in the creation of 30,000 megawatts of offshore windmills alone, not to mention another estimated 33,000 jobs in manufacturing, installation, operations,and maintenance. Unlike the jobs in creating the windmill farms, the latter jobs listed would be permanent positions that will have a prolonged effect on the economic development of the country.

The area of offshore windmills energy production has a lot of development to be made in the United States. Offshore windmills provide a lot of potential benefits with limited disadvantages, and are yet another way for the United States to shift its focus away from nonrenewable, unclean energy sources like fossil fuels. Through the implementation of offshore windmill farms, there will be a higher production of clean energy within the country alongside an opportunity of economic development.