What is the advantage to putting a wind farm off shore?

More continuous winds that are not disrupted by the land mass.

In Hawaii, it would make sense for a wind farm to be one the north, windward side of the island, not the southern leeward side of the island.

That makes sense.

However, your mistaken in your knowledge of the winds here. The east sides of the islands are the windward sides, and the west sides are leeward. :)

My father works in the wind industry.

A primary issue, believe it or not, is people near wind farms complaining about noise and “eyesores” and generally making a huge fuss about having wind turbines near them. Off shore avoids some of this too.

I have heard that. It wouldn’t bother me personally, but I understand it might bother others.

Are the turbines noisy?

Another advantage is that you can add underwater turbines to each of them, taking advantage of tidal energy.

The property values are much cheaper.
Turbines do make noise in the infrasonic region. Some people are bothered by it. Also some people complain about the flashing shadow the turbines make during the time when the sun is in the exact right (or wrong) direction.
In this area one of the considerations is ice being thrown from the blades. That is probably not an issue in your neck of the woods.

Just for information: This question was initiated by reading an article that the nation’s first off shore wind farm is near completion in Rhode Island.

My dad has conducted many, many sound studies on his turbines because there’s one guy in particular who keeps raising hell at town hall about how he “can’t sleep” because of the wind turbines near his house. There are ordinances that regulate how loud turbines can be, as heard from the nearest residential area. So my dad has gone out there with a sound meter and stood in this guy’s front lawn and measured it. He always gets readings at about 40 decibels. For reference, that’s the noise level of a quiet library. It’s a very white noise too. Just a rhythmic whoosh, whoosh. Like a wave machine.

@LuckyGuy What is infrasonic noise?

EDIT: I looked it up.

@Mariah: Did your dad measure infrasonic noise? (Noise at a lower range below normal hearing?)

Damn NIMBYs

No idea if his meter is detects that. I’ll ask him.

Damn NIMBYs

I have a friend who has worked on offshore wind proposals. They get swarmed at community meetings by NIMBYs.

From the shore, the towers would look smaller than your thumb held at arm’s length.

I’ve suggested adding coal-fired offshore generators to the proposals and let the communities choose a preference.

@Call_Me_Jay or a nuclear power station?

I’ve heard people say that they pollute the natural landscape. Personally, I think they have an elegant grace and beauty and I would far rather have them and use that clean(ish) electricity than worry about a bit of noise. Though I suppose that once you have let the noise rile you, it’s hard to turn that emotion off.

@Mariah is correct, it is mostly people whining. I’m headed out shortly to go work at one myself.
I sure would not want to live right next to one. The noise does suck, not loud but annoying.. ffffeeeeww…pause ffffeeeew…pause…fffeeeww….

@Hawaii_Jake Have you ever driven a car on the highway with just one of the rear windows rolled down? At certain speeds in certain cars you will feel a 2 to 5 Hz pulsing in your ears.
Try it! That pulsing is an example of infrasonics. Whales use it to communicate over long distances.
By the way, under certain conditions and power levels it can stimulate the bowels and be used as a form of non-lethal crowd control. Who knew?
Oops! Gotta’ go! ;-)

You get stronger winds off shore and less NIMBY’s. The downside is building stuff in the sea is more expensive.

You also don’t bother people who live near them, and you kill fewer bats.