“We thought it would be a good learning opportunity for kids to see and to ask questions,” Assistant City Manager Susy Torriente said at the time. “It's a perfect location to catch people's attention and start talking about different types of energy.”
But that’s a rare example of harnessing the energy of the winds in the Sunshine State. As part of our “Sound Off South Florida” project, in which we answer reader-submitted questions, Wilton Manors resident Bob Mays wrote in to ask, “Given our breezy coastal location, why aren’t we using wind turbines to make electricity?”
“It was my partner who first asked the question,” Mays said. “He used to live in Iowa, where there are lots of wind turbines and life goes on underneath the turbines as normal. Here with constant ocean breezes, why not use them to increase our renewable energy supply?”
There’s a simple answer to that question: Florida is not nearly as breezy as you may think.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, for wind energy to be a viable option, an area needs to see wind speeds with an annual average of 6.5 meters per second at a height of 80 meters.
But as you can see from this map, Florida doesn’t cut it:
Florida could have a sustainable wind energy industry, according to a 2015 Energy Department report, but the turbine heights would have to be enormous — up to 460 feet tall, and with 200-foot blades, for a total height of 660 feet when one of the blades is pointing up.
But that doesn’t mean Florida can’t use the currents to harness energy. It’s just that, while wide open states in the Great Plains or the Southwest use turbines in air currents, in the future, Florida may use turbines to do the same job beneath the waves.
At Florida Atlantic University’s Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center, scientists have spent several years studying how to generate energy by using turbines in ocean currents. Last year, the center reached an agreement with Lake Worth to test the turbines off the waters there, where the Gulf Stream is close to shore and fairly consistent.
According to the center, although the Gulf Stream moves at just around five knots, because it’s pushing along water rather than the much lighter air, the energy equivalent could be the same as a wind turbine in gale-force winds.