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What are the climate benefits of offshore wind?

Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, consequently warming the planet and causing climate change. To fight the devastating effects of climate change, we need to transition our electricity sources away from fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, toward renewables, such as solar and wind. Beyond the climate impacts, burning fossil fuels also causes significant air pollution, which poses risks (1) to human health. Instead of burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, wind turbines generate electricity simply by being spun by the wind. By helping make fossil fuel power plants (such as the "natural" gas-burning Humboldt Bay Generating Station [2]) obsolete, offshore wind energy would directly benefit air quality and the global climate.

Graph of Global Average Surface Temperature Change, 1950-2100.

Global Average Surface Temperature Change, 1950-2100.
Source: IPCC (3)

Wind energy is particularly helpful for reducing greenhouse gas emissions because it complements solar energy. California currently experiences a shortage (4) of renewable energy production in the early evening as the sun sets—which is also when energy demand peaks, as people get home from work and turn on all of their appliances. Fortunately, the wind typically picks up and blows the strongest at this same time, around dusk. Similarly, in the winter time, wind continues to remain relatively consistent despite overall reductions of daylight.  For those reasons, offshore wind energy can act as a natural complement to solar energy and would significantly reduce California’s nightly demand for fossil fuel-generated electricity. It could also clear the way for the eventual closure of those fossil fuel-generated electricity plants.

 

All across California and the U.S., new renewable energy projects are being built in order to facilitate the transition away from dirty fossil fuel electricity; Humboldt County is by no means alone in undergoing a push for new renewable energy projects.

If we do not build the Humboldt offshore wind energy projects, approximately 1.6 to 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity would not be added to the grid. An equivalent amount of fossil fuel-generated energy would continue to emit greenhouse gasses until another community agreed to allow a renewable energy project of similar size and complementary nature (or many smaller renewable energy projects cumulatively adding up to the same size) to be constructed. Other current non-fossil fuel alternatives to offshore wind include onshore wind, nuclear energy, hydropower, geothermal energy,  and solar energy + lithium batteries. All of these alternatives have their own environmental impacts (5), and would impact communities somewhere.

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There are two major consequences of failing to stop using fossil fuels. First, if we continue business as usual, communities across California and the country will continue to breathe dirty air and be impacted by the harmful effects of fracking in order to provide Californians with electricity. For example, several natural gas plants (6) in Southern California located in communities of color, which were supposed to shut down in 2020 due to the negative health and climate impacts, recently had their industrial life cycles extended until 2026 because of a lack of renewable energy at peak demand times. Additionally, aging fossil fuel power plants would require costly investments, upgrades, and natural resources as operating lifespans of existing facilities come to an end (7).

Map of Renewable Energy Installations in the United States, 2023.

Renewable Energy Installations in the United States, 2023.

Source: Visual Capitalist / U.S. Energy Information Administration (8)

Secondly, the climate crisis is a collective action problem.  If communities around the world like the North Coast don’t develop new renewable energy sources that replace fossil fuels, such as the proposed offshore wind project, the climate crisis will continue to worsen. This will cause additional sea level rise, droughts, storms, catastrophic wildfires, ocean warming and acidification that will change marine migration patterns, cause massive toxic algae blooms, and impact shell formation, and many other calamities to the environment and human health.  According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (9), the United Nation’s leading body focused on documenting the impacts of climate change, climate change has already caused (10) substantial damages, and increasingly irreversible losses, in terrestrial, freshwater, cryospheric, and coastal and open ocean ecosystems. Hundreds of extinctions of species have been driven by greater heat extremes with mass mortality events recorded on land and in the ocean. By their estimate, approximately 3.3 billion people are currently highly vulnerable (10) to climate change whether because of sea level rise, freshwater shortages, crop failures, or extreme heat.

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Click here to watch a video from the National Wildlife Federation about floating offshore wind (11):

References

  1. Perera, F. (2018, Jan). Pollution from Fossil-Fuel Combustion is the Leading Environmental Threat to Global Pediatric Health and Equity: Solutions Exist. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 15(1): 16. doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15010016

  2. California Energy Commission. (2024). Humboldt Bay Generating Station. www.energy.ca.gov/powerplant/reciprocating-engine/humboldt-bay-generating-station

  3. IPCC, 2013: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA. www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf

  4. Weaver, J.F. (2023, April 20). Driven by solar, California’s net demand hit zero on Sunday. PV Magazine. https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2023/04/20/driven-by-solar-californias-net-demand-hit-zero-on-sunday/

  5. Rahman, A., Farrok, O., Haque, M.M. (2022, June). Environmental impact of renewable energy source based electrical power plants: Solar, wind, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal, tidal, ocean, and osmotic. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112279

  6. Becker, R. (2023, August 15). Southern California’s natural gas plants to stay open through 2026. CalMatters. https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/08/southern-california-natural-gas-plants-remain-open/ 

  7. Roth, S. (2020, September 24). Boiling Point: California won’t need to kill fossil fuel plants. They’re dying of old age. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2020-09-24/fossil-fuel-plants-ladwp-methane-stranded-assets-boiling-point

  8. Kennedy, A. (2023, May 30). Mapped: Renewable Energy and Battery Installations in the U.S. in 2023. Visual Capitalist. www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-renewable-energy-and-battery-installations-in-the-u-s-in-2023/ 

  9. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (n.d.). www.ipcc.ch

  10. IPCC, 2023: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, H. Lee and J. Romero (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, pp. 1-34, doi: 10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001

  11. National Wildlife. (2023, November 8). Offshore Winds of Change [Video]. YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uds0LhOvh8

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