Wind Week! What is our potential?
Gov. John Bel Edwards and state agencies are planning a week of online presentations about Louisiana’s potential to generate large amounts of energy from offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Mexico. In what the state is billing “Louisiana Wind Week,” the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and other agencies will host five video webinars June 21 through June 25 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. each day. Topics will include offshore wind regulations, wildlife effects and the wind industry’s potential relationship to the existing offshore oil and gas industry. “While Louisiana’s onshore wind resources are limited, Louisiana’s coast is ripe for wind energy development,” Edwards said. “Thanks to years of oil and gas exploration experience, Louisiana’s existing infrastructure, workforce and business community give us a strategic advantage in developing offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico and all coastal waters of the United States.”
nola.com
There are companies in Louisiana who produce components of wind turbines and it was a Louisiana company that was heavily involved in the Block Island Wind Farm in 2016. So the skill and knowledge is here. we have a trained workforce in energy and as oil drops there are workers available. A single wind project would support 4,400 jobs with $445 million in support monies. Upon completion 150 jobs and $14 million in salaries and support costs.
President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing for 30 gigawatts of wind power to be built offshore by the private sector by 2030. Later this week, the U.S. Department of the Interior is set to release a “request for interest” to private companies to gauge the feasibility wind projects in the Gulf. On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold its first Gulf of Mexico Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting. The online meeting will cover the offshore wind development process for federal waters and gather input from Gulf state government officials on potential effects in future wind lease areas. Information about Wind Week is available at https://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/page/124.
The possibilty grows that we will have have a wind farm off coast!
