Coastal Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerabilities - Climate ...

Adaptation and Mitigation 115independence, siting of renewable energy installations will become a growing issue.Due to the density of coastal populations and the unique features of coastal systems,much of this development will continue to occur on America’s coastlines and nearshorewaters. Some of this potential is discussed here.Offshore Wind. U.S. offshore winds resources (Figure 5-2) have an estimated grosspotential to generate capacity of more than 4,000 GW or roughly four times the generatingcapacity currently carried on the U.S. electric grid (NREL, 2010). The NationalRenewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, 2010) projects that U.S. coastline and Great Lakeswind facilities could provide 20 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030.Figure 5-2 U.S. offshorewind resource by regionand depth for annualaverage wind speed sitesabove 7.0 m/s. Source:NREL, 2010.Ocean Energy. Wave, tidal/current, and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC)technologies remain an emerging, although relatively untapped, opportunity to diversifyU.S. energy resources. Estimations of the energy available from these sources issignificant to the U.S. energy budget. Pilot generation projection of wave and tidal energyexists in the U.S., with over sixty more having received preliminary Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission permits (DOE, 2011).Coastal Renewable Energy Science GapsIn the report U.S. Marine and Hydrokinetic Renewable Energy Roadmap, the Ocean RenewableEnergy Coalition (OREC, 2011) identified the following 6 priority research areas:Seabed Attachments: Foundations, anchors, and mooring for floating and bottomfixedinstallations;Engineering Design: Develop design standards and best practices for designs coveringstructural, mechanical, and electrical systems with failure modes analysis;