If we could figure out all of these issues, it would take about 225 wind turbines to generate the amount of electricity produced by a natural gas power plant, like the one proposed in Burrillville.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. 

This month, we’re gearing up for a live panel discussion about how offshore wind and fisheries might co-exist in Rhode Island. But before we tackle that topic, we wanted to learn more about wind power in general. 

Tammuz Frankel and Isha Chawla from our Possibly Team looked into this topic. Welcome Tammuz and Isha!

Tammuz: Hi!

Isha: Hi!

Megan Hall: So, let’s start with the basics. I know windmills spin and create electricity.  But are they reliable? What if the wind isn’t blowing? 

Isha Chawla: To figure that out, we spoke to Kevin Rackstraw, who is Senior Vice President of a company called Customer First Renewables, and has worked in and around the wind industry for decades.  

Tammuz Frankel: He says, yes, sometimes there’s a mismatch between when people need electricity and when wind farms are generating power.

Kevin Rackstraw: When people wake up in the morning, they start turning on their induction heating devices, make your tea or coffee or whatever. And maybe the wind’s not blowing. 

Megan Hall: So, how does an electricity provider handle this mismatch?

Isha Chawla: Currently in RI, they use natural gas power plants as a back-up system, because they can supply energy at any given time. 

Tammuz Frankel: But, that means that not all of the electricity is renewable, so generating power still releases greenhouse gases that cause climate change.  

Isha Chawla: One way to solve this problem is to connect wind farms in different locations. That way, when the wind isn’t blowing in one location it doesn’t stop the entire system from functioning.

Tammuz Frankel: Another approach is to mix in other renewables, like solar, which might produce at different times than wind. 

Isha Chawla: But wind farms would also be a more reliable source of electricity if we had the capacity to store wind energy when it is being produced, and use it whenever we need it.

Kevin Rackstraw: You have more flexibility if you’re using battery, small storage of any kind, but particularly battery storage.

Megan Hall: And those batteries don’t exist yet?  

Isha Chawla:  Many researchers are working on creating these batteries, but the batteries aren’t big enough, or quite cheap enough, yet. 

Megan Hall: Ok, but if we could snap our fingers and make wind energy a major source of power here in Rhode Island, how many turbines are we talking about?  

Tammuz Frankel: Well, to put this in perspective, let’s use the gas power plant that the state wanted to build in Burrillville as an example. That  power plant would have generated 900 megawatts of electricity. 

Isha Chawla: Based on our calculations*, if you wanted to generate the same amount of energy from an offshore wind farm, you’d have to put about 225 turbines in the ocean. 

Tammuz Frankel: For context, the Block Island wind farm only has 5 turbines.  

Megan Hall: That sounds like a lot!!

Isha Chawla: It is. But, Rhode Island and Connecticut are already planning to build up to 88 offshore turbines between Martha’s Vineyard and Montauk, New York 

Tammuz Frankel: Rhode Island’s share of the power from that project would be enough to take care of about 20% of the state’s electricity needs.   

Isha Chawla: There’s still a lot to figure out about wind farms – how that power will be integrated  into the existing electricity grid,  how to store it for times when the wind isn’t blowing, and how to minimize the impacts of such a massive development on fishermen…

Tammuz Frankel: But the possibility of using offshore wind farms to generate a significant amount of energy in Rhode Island isn’t unrealistic.  

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks Tammuz and Isha.

Megan Hall: That’s it for today. We’re hosting a live panel on offshore wind and fisheries on January 30th at District Hall in Providence. The event is free and open to anyone. We hope you’ll join us! To learn more and reserve your seat, go to “the public’s radio dot org slash possibly.”

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and the Public’s Radio.

*Calculation: The new Revolution Wind project between RI and Connecticut is installing turbines of 8mW capacity, which is what we assumed for this calculation. The Burrillville power plant was meant to generate 900mW, but a wind farm would probably need to be double that capacity to account for fluctuations in supply (1800mW). Therefore, we would need 225 turbines to deliver the same amount of power. 

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