In 2010, GNO, Inc. and partners from the State and City helped bring Blade Dynamics from England to NASA Michoud in New Orleans East, to begin the design, testing and manufacture of large wind-turbine blades.
We all saw Blade Dynamics as the seed of a new clean energy industry in Louisiana, which would leverage our historical world-class expertise in other forms of energy.
Now, a decade later, Blade Dynamics has become LM Wind Power (a subsidiary of General Electric), and is designing and testing the largest windmill blades in the world – each longer than a football field. Their 107-meter blade is set to capture the wind for GE’s Haliade-X 12 MW offshore wind turbine, the world’s most powerful wind turbine.
At the same time, other Louisiana oil and gas companies have been involved in the manufacture and servicing of the first offshore windmill farm in America, off the coast of Rhode Island. Lafayette-based Aries Marine Corp. and Galliano-based Falcon Global LLC are liftboat operators who helped build the project. Metairie-based Keystone Engineering provided design assistance and Houma-based Gulf Island Fabrication built foundation jackets and piling. And Edison Chouest Offshore has announced the execution of a long-term charter agreement for the provision of the first-ever U.S. flagged Jones Act compliant Service Operations Vessel (SOV) for wind farms.
Beyond the manufacturing and servicing of offshore wind farms for other locations, there is mid-term potential for wind energy generated right here, in the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, Louisiana is ranked #4 in the USA for overall offshore wind potential, in part due to the extensive shallow shelf in the Gulf.
To capture and optimize the overall wind opportunity, in 2019 GNO, Inc. launched the GNOwind Alliance. Since then, the coalition has grown to over 130 members representing private, public, and academic organizations driving targeted initiatives around port infrastructure, industry attraction, workforce development, policy, and innovation. The GNOwind Alliance worked closely with Louisiana Economic Development and Governor Edwards’ team to initiate the regulatory process for future wind leases in the Gulf. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is fielding interest from wind developers and is aiming to receive initial bids by the end of 2022 – a remarkably fast industry development that would position the Gulf of Mexico as a primary wind energy hub.
If you would like to learn more, NOLA.com / The Advocate has published an extensive series, Winds of Change: How the Gulf of Mexico could be the next offshore wind powerhouse. “In this multi-part series, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate takes an in-depth look at the economic and energy-producing potential of offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico. NOLA journalists traveled to Rhode Island to explore how several companies in Louisiana's oil and gas industry helped build the country's first offshore wind farm. Now those same companies and more are shifting gears to keep pace with a booming offshore wind industry that could soon put wind turbines off the Louisiana coast.”
You can read the series here.
