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Capturing offshore winds for energy Company targets former oil platforms off Louisiana coast for 230-foot turbines; wind farms would have 25 turbines each Henri LeJeune The Daily Iberian
New Iberia, La., company wants to take the winds blowing offshore and turn them into power for Louisiana homes.
Grand Vent Wind Energy Systems Technologies LLC hopes to take oil platforms no longer in use and place 230-foot-tall turbines on top of them.
Company president Herman Schellstede envisions a wind farm with 25 turbines each. The initial plans have turbines on top of three former oil platforms and the other 22 turbines on top of specially made smaller platforms. The first farm would produce 50 megawatts total. One turbine could supply power for 3,200 households and all 25 could provide power to 40,000, he said.
Grand Vent is looking at three locations to start the first farm. One is off the coast of Port Fouchon, another east of Marsh Island and the third near Freshwater Bayou.
“By the end of this year, they’ll have the planning design and approval,” Schellstede said. By 2005, he hopes to have the first 50-megawatt unit running.
Schellstede said Harold Schoeffler, of Lafayette, gave him the idea to pursue the project. Schellstede has worked in the oil industry for years and designed oil platforms, but had never thought to use abandoned platforms for that purpose. State of Louisiana interested Louisiana Public Service Commissioner James Field said Schellstede’s company gave the commission a project presentation. He said the state is interested and that the commission encouraged the company to go ahead with its experiment.
Fields felt the turbines would be welcomed by the oil industry because companies would not have to spend the millions it takes to dismantle the old platforms.
In addition to working with state regulators, Schellstede has been working with the U.S. Mineral Management Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others to build the farms.
Christopher Namovicz, wind expert for the federal Energy Information Administration, said there is little federal regulation of offshore wind generation stations.
Companies are planning wind farms off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Long Island, N.Y., Namovicz said, but none have been built offshore yet. Namovicz said part of the problem with getting wind power up and going is that no federal process has been set up: “They’re kind of making up the process as they go along,” he said. Platforms within 12 miles of shore of interest Wind power has already taken off in Europe and could take off in the United States soon, Namovicz said. Offshore wind power is attractive, because wind stations on land are far from population areas and power is more expensive to ship. Stations off the coast could be a cheap alternative.
Gregory Stone, director of coastline studies at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge who took part in the data collection for Schellstede’s offshore wind study, said he would like to see more study of Louisiana coastal wind potential.
The state has adequate wind for the generators, but the data he supplied Schellstede was for one year’s worth of study. He said he’d also like to place wind meters higher on towers to obtain more accurate data.
“I think the concept is a good one,” Stone said. “We don’t have a lot of data in the Gulf of Mexico, but with the data I have, it shows it’s worth investigating.”
Schellstede said there are about 5,200 oil and gas platforms off the coast of Louisiana. He said he is hoping to use 1,017 platforms that are within 12 miles of the Louisiana shoreline. The farms should cost $50 million to install.
The generators would be bought from General Electric, and the smaller platforms would be built locally. All 25 stations would be tied together, and one of the three platforms would be used as the energy gathering and electrical switch gear station. The power lines would be run down an abandoned pipeline and connected to the grid on land.
Schellstede said he wants the headquarters and wind platform generation yards to be at the Port of Iberia.
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