Off-shore wind-power on its way to the Gulf

Paula Dittrick
Senior Staff Writer
HOUSTON, Aug. 31 — Wind Energy Systems Technologies LLC (WEST), New Iberia, La., wants to install wind turbines on abandoned Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas platforms to generate electric power for both homes and secondary recovery efforts.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission as early as next month could begin to consider a request from WEST to tap into the existing electric power grid and also to consider whether it would support legislation that would allow WEST to sell power in Louisiana. Currently, Louisiana regulates the utilities that are allowed to sell power.

WEST also is considering wind farms that would provide power to Texas and Mississippi. Organizers said the regulatory restrictions, both state and federal, appear to be the biggest obstacles.

The Louisiana PSC, which regulates utilities, agreed to study the possibility of putting wind turbines on platforms after WEST approached Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell, said Bill Robertson, executive assistant to Campbell.

WEST Pres. Herman Schellstede hopes to have a 50 Mw wind farm running sometime next year in Louisiana state waters at a cost of $50 million.

Initial plans are to put turbines on three platforms and also install a cluster of special platforms that would only support wind turbines. Each cluster would involve 20-30 turbines total, he said.

Schellstede also is president of Herman Schellstede & Associates Inc., a New Iberia engineering company that has designed offshore drilling rigs and platforms for 36 years. WEST envisions a series of sites for wind farms in the gulf.

“We hope to start construction in 2005 using abandoned platforms and pipelines in Louisiana state waters. We plan to use the pipeline to run our cable in as a conductor,” Schellstede said.

There are about 1,000 platforms within 12 miles of the Louisiana coast, he said. Depending upon pipeline availability, he is focusing on platforms within that zone as the ones to use for producing electricity that will be transmitted via cable in pipelines to connect with the grid on land.

Not all platforms are suitable as hosts for wind turbines, he said, adding that he is looking for eight-pile drilling and production platforms although he said four-pile platforms also could be used.

The idea
Harold Schoeffler, who owns Schoeffler Cadillac in Lafayette, and who is a regional Sierra Club leader, approached Schellstede with the idea. The two then jointly took their proposal to the PSC.

Schoeffler said the idea stemmed from a discussion that he had with a Lafayette oil company executive about the high cost to oil companies to dismantle old platforms. That prompted Schoeffler to study whether wind turbines could be installed on platforms.

He now considers Louisiana to be a prime location for offshore wind development. Pending necessary government permits and approvals, private investors would finance the wind turbines and their installation, he said.

“It comes down to this question: Are we in the energy business in Louisiana and Texas, or are we in the oil business,” Schoeffler said. “If we are in the oil business, we’re going to eventually go out of business, but if we are in the energy business, these wind turbines will go forever. It’s kind of a ‘tortoise and hare’ race.”

Initial plans call for the electric power to be transmitted to the shore, but Schellstede said that eventually wind energy could be used for second recovery efforts and possibly sold to companies needing electricity for deepwater projects.

WEST already has contacted the US Minerals Management Service and envisions the use of wind turbines on platforms in federal waters.

Schoeffler said, “The electricity that would be produced could be used for secondary recovery. Down hole electrical pumps require a lot of power縨ore power than you can get from portable generators that typically are available on a rig. Wind energy could help secondary recovery, and that could mean less dependence on foreign oil.”

Federal regulations require that platforms have to be dismantled when no longer in use or else sunk for use as coral reefs in authorized areas, many of which are off Florida.

“Once the platform has done its job, the structure still is in good shape, and we could be using it,” Schellstede said.

Regulations; wind study
Christopher Namovicz, a wind specialist with the US Energy Information Administration, said there is no authoritative, comprehensive US law or regulation covering offshore wind development.

No wind farms have been built yet off the US, Namovicz said, noting that offshore wind power exists in Europe.

Two projects already are in development. The Long Island Power Authority in New York is working on a project for a wind farm off southwest Long Island, and an independent power producer is working to build a Cape Wind project off Massachusetts.

“I am aware of several other proposals for offshore wind development at various locations on the East Coast. It is my impression that the Cape Wind and LIPA projects are the furthest along in terms of actual development, although I still think that final approval and construction of either is less than certain at this point,” Namovicz said.

Gregory W. Stone, director of Coastline Studies Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, has been collecting wind data that indicates coastal Louisiana has adequate wind to run wind turbines. His work is part of an ongoing study on wave, current, and surge information for coastal Louisiana.

Stone would like to place wind meters on towers 240 ft above sea level in order to get more information.

“I have taken several years of data from these stations offshore and analyzed it, and it looks pretty promising, but the problem is that we have not yet got the data to the correct elevation that we need. We need more instruments at higher elevations to see what the blades of these turbines actually would be experiencing,” Stone said.

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