Mapping Sustainability and Justice Implications of Great Lakes Offshore Wind Energy

Project duration: Winter 2024

Objectives:

• Identify the societal and technological barriers to GLOW (i.e. viewshed issues, high costs, etc.) and the relevant stakeholders

• Use data visualization to create maps of wind farm factors overlaid with data about socioeconomic and demographic groups

• Make recommendations for site of  ideal GLOW farms to evenly distribute the burdens and benefits to address unequitable energy burdens.

Key Findings:

• Predicts that there are two main planning scenarios
  Focusing on minimizing infrastructure costs by building near existing infrastructure
  Focusing on maximizing power output by building where the wind is the fastest

• Proposes 3 sites for Low Infrastructure Scenario and 3 sites for High Speed Scenario 2

Lead EMBERlab Researcher: Declan McGrath