How Offshore Wind Powers Your Home

Full transcript

Out on the open ocean, winds blow stronger and far more consistently than on land, making them an extraordinary powerhouse for generating clean, renewable electricity at massive scale. Giant wind turbines are anchored miles out at sea, and when the powerful ocean breeze pushes against their enormous blades, it forces them to spin, capturing the wind's raw kinetic energy. That spinning motion drives a main shaft inside the turbine's housing, where a gearbox accelerates the rotation and feeds a generator that converts all that mechanical movement into usable electrical current. The electricity then travels down the full length of the turbine tower and flows into heavy-duty array cables that are buried safely and securely beneath the ocean floor to protect them from the harsh sea environment. Subsea cables gather power from an entire field of turbines and channel it all into a centralized offshore substation, which steps up the voltage so the electricity can travel efficiently across very long distances without losing energy. Finally, a high-voltage export cable carries all that power ashore to an onshore substation, where the voltage is carefully adjusted and fed directly into the local grid, lighting up homes and businesses across the entire community.