Riding the wind
28th April, 2008
I just ran around the sailboat taking sadly, my last photos of my new friends that I’ve met on the 2041 yacht. We’ve managed to pick up amazing speed on our south track towards San Luis Obispo (technically Morro Bay). We’re running our sails “wing on wing” with the wind at our backs, going at an amazing 10-11 knots, several knots faster than we could motor (and carbon free!). We’ve all taken a stab at driving the boat, seeing who can surf the fastest. Bret, a newbie helmsman took the record at 11.7 knots. Call it beginners luck!
Yesterday, we went about 20 miles due west of Cape Mendocino, just south of Eureka, California. My graduate research proposes to harness the same energy that’s filling our sails, to power offshore wind turbines. Cape Mendocino has the best offshore wind resource and until recently, had been completely ignored as a feasible renewable energy resource for California. The offshore wind farm Cristina Archer, Mark Jacobson, and I proposed would locate 300 turbines off of Cape Mendocino, to supply California with 1500 MW of clean power generating capacity (about the capacity of 1.5 large nuclear power plants). Winds at this offshore site blow consistently throughout the day, especially during the summer months when electricity is most needed. The proposed Cape Mendocino wind park could replace about 4% of California’s current carbon emitting electricity generation (including out of state imports).
We’ve ignored vast clean energy resources like wind, solar, and geothermal, in our quest for economic growth at nearly any environmental cost. The California offshore wind resource is a perfect case in point. By relying primarily on coal, oil, and uranium for our energy, we’ve gotten lazy in inventing novel ways to harness the free energy available on our planet. As I write this now, we’re being hurled down the California coast at a comfortable cruising speed in the 2041 sailboat. My laptop right now is being powered by PV solar cells and the wind generator. All of this comes at a minimal environmental cost.
My hope is that everyone who visits the 2041 boat and reads about the Voyage for Cleaner Energy tries to think about ways in their life, as well as ways for their governments to come up with more creative solutions to solving global warming. We can mitigate the effects of climate change and manage to keep our western standard of living if we are creative enough.
Mike Dvorak
Atmosphere/Energy PhD student
Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering
