Former IGERT Fellow Cranmer and faculty member Baker publish paper on offshore wind

Date Posted: 
Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Former IGERT student Zana Cranmer, now at Bentley University, and Professor Erin Baker have published a paper in Environmental Research Letters on the Global Climate Value of Offshore Wind Energy. It is available open access at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7667/meta . They find that the value of offshore wind, in terms of reducing the damages from climate change, is between $140 billion and $8.9 trillion worldwide. This value comes from reducing emissions, which means reduced climate damages, including damages to fisheries and other ecosystems from higher temperatures. The proposed Vineyard Wind development, which has recently been delayed by BOEM, would produce enough electricity each year to power all the households in Boston and Springfield combined. That translates into something between $26 and $304 million in climate value lost  for each year this first large scale offshore wind farm is delayed.