title: Changing vessel routes could significantly reduce the cost of future offshore wind projects.
abstract: With the recent emphasis on offshore wind energy Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning (CMSP) has become one of the main frameworks used to plan and manage the increasingly complex web of ocean and coastal uses. As wind development becomes more prevalent, existing users of the ocean space, such as commercial shippers, will be compelled to share their historically open-access waters with these projects. Here, we demonstrate the utility of using cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) to support siting decisions within a CMSP framework. In this study, we assume that large-scale offshore wind development will take place in the US Mid-Atlantic within the next decades. We then evaluate whether building projects nearshore or far from shore would be more cost-effective. Building projects nearshore is assumed to require rerouting of the commercial vessel traffic traveling between the US Mid-Atlantic ports by an average of 18.5 km per trip. We focus on less than 1500 transits by large deep-draft vessels. We estimate that over 29 years of the study, commercial shippers would incur an additional $0.2 billion (in 2012$) in direct and indirect costs. Building wind projects closer to shore where vessels used to transit would generate approximately $13.4 billion (in 2012$) in savings. Considering the large cost savings, modifying areas where vessels transit needs to be included in the portfolio of policies used to support the growth of the offshore wind industry in the US.
authors.affiliation: University of Delaware, School of Marine Science and Policy, Robinson Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA. Electronic address: ksam@udel.edu.
authors.forename: Kateryna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Samoteskul
authors.affiliation: University of Delaware, School of Marine Science and Policy, Robinson Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA. Electronic address: jf@udel.edu.
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Firestone
authors.affiliation: University of Delaware, School of Marine Science and Policy, Robinson Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA. Electronic address: jcorbett@udel.edu.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Corbett
authors.affiliation: Delaware Geological Survey, 257 Academy Street, Newark, DE 19716, USA. Electronic address: john.callahan@udel.edu.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Callahan
mesh_terms: D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D003132:Commerce; D017046:Cost Savings; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D059205:Renewable Energy / Q000191:economics*; D012767:Ships; D014481:United States
keywords: Cost-effectiveness analysis; Marine spatial planning; Marine transportation; Offshore wind energy; Vessel rerouting