CELTIC BREEZE GROWS, OREGON BREEZE BLOWS
Heavy seas engulf the Block Island Wind Farm - the first US offshore wind farm. The five Halide 6MW turbines were installed by Deepwater Wind, and are currently under commissioning. (Photo by Dennis Schroeder / NREL)
In the spirit of our upcoming sponsorship of the local Scottish Heritage Festival here in McMinnville, Oregon, we find ourselves thinking of Scotland, and the ways in which our own home half a world away has many parallels.
Scottish coastal waves (Oliver Clarke)
When we think of the Scottish Highlands, the visceral feelings of the howling, damp winds are often evoked. Oregon has a similar gale which blows in as the Pacific winds encounter the rugged coastline of the West Coast. Unsurprisingly, there have also long been proposals to tame these winds to do useful work. In recent years in Scotland, that has evolved to mean tapping those winds at the source - far offshore in the North Sea, where the winds blow most consistently before being slowed and warped by their interactions with the mainland. This persistent gale has fueled a proverbial boom in Scottish off-shore wind power generation, to the tune of 8-11 gigawatts of carbon-free power by 2030.
Unlike the onshore winds, which can be intermittent and only occasionally predictable, offshore winds blow even when the onshore breeze would falter. This means that the power is not only more plentiful, but more reliable than typical renewable energy efforts. In the right conditions, offshore wind can be nearly as reliable as any natural gas peaker plant for a fraction of the environmental impact.
Crashing waves in Depoe Bay, Oregon (Photo by Erica Harris, Oregon State University)
Here in Oregon, we have had a much slower start to our leveraging of this offshore resource, despite the potential being several times larger than that of the North Sea. There, just off from the coastal towns of Coos Bay and Brookings, it’s estimated that the windward seas have the technical capacity for some 84.6 Gigawatts of wind energy. This is ten times what is currently projected to be built off the shore of Scotland, and among the most productive potential wind power production areas in the entire North American continent.
Originally settled by Europeans in the mid-1800s as a fishing port, Coos Bay is now Oregon’s second largest deepwater port by import/export volumes, and even boasts a direct overland connection to the state’s Class I railroad trunk. However, the Southern Coast as a region is isolated from the more prosperous interior by the mountains of Oregon’s Coast Range. As such, it is still relatively rugged, underdeveloped, and economically depressed compared to the rest of the state - lacking much of the infrastructure necessary to fully realize the potential of that port. This includes access to cheap and reliable power generation, having no substantial generation capacity to speak of south of Newport. Therefore it is not surprising that there has been a push to start developing those low-impact and carbon-free off-shore wind resources. Such an investment has the potential to employ tens of thousands, as well as make the entire State much less reliant on dirty coal power imports from the Mountain West.
At the moment, the US offshore wind market and capacity to build is relatively modest compared to many other countries, with the region around Oregon being singled out as being of particular interest to federal authorities to get the ball rolling. As the culmination of decades of development and study of the area for these potential purposes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) was set to auction off the rights to develop these offshore resources for the first time on October 15, 2024. This would have been the starting gun for a new era of renewable & profitable energy generation in Oregon, spurring development of a range of on-shore services to both construct and continually service the off-shore facilities once built, in addition to the relatively cheap and reliable power generation for other on-shore uses.
(Map by BOEM)
Recent judicial developments, however, have put these plans on hold. In September, a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) lawsuit was filed against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), which was forced to drop the upcoming offshore wind energy auction as all the potential development companies pulled out. The lawsuit by local Native American tribes alleges that not enough environmental review had been conducted into the potential impact of the offshore wind farms on local fisheries, as well as potential cultural damage to local native american tribal communities. Some other local anti-wind groups have also coalesced around opposition to the projects as well, alleging similar environmental concerns as the local tribes.
As an investment fund it behooves us not to take a hard political stance on matters we may regret later, but we will make an observation. In Scotland, as in many other parts of the world, offshore wind capacity and projects have been undertaken at great expense and to great success. Economic growth does not come without cost, but inaction also takes its own toll. If the Southern Oregon Coast wants to both grow and contribute to the resilience of the Oregon grid, it would seem that they could do worse than making that cold, damp, dangerous Pacific wind work for them, for a change.
This topic is also well timed for the Woodworth Contrarian Fund’s title sponsorship of the McMinnville Scottish Festival on October 5th & 6th - fitting given our Celtic tree of life logo and Scottish heritage (see our quadruple-great grandfather Millegan from Scotland to the right). You can join us for a great event and get some face time with the award-winning managers, Drew & Quinn Millegan, where you can ask questions and consider a diversification of your investment portfolio into the liquid Woodworth Contrarian Fund as an accredited investor.
James Alexander Millegan (1776-1881)
DEEP ROOTS. STUBBORN-GROWTH. OREGON-BASED.
Now is a great time to diversify your portfolio with an investment into an award-winning fund. Call us or visit our website to inquire on an investment today in the Woodworth Contrarian Fund as an accredited investor.
(800) 651-1996 - info@woodworth.fund - www.Woodworth.Fund
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Drew Millegan (left) & Quinn Millegan (right) in front of the Charging Bull in New York City.
About the Managers: Drew Millegan with his brother, Quinn Millegan, (29 and 26 years old respectively) manage the Woodworth Contrarian Stock & Bond Fund, a hedge fund based in McMinnville, Oregon. They grew up in the finance world, and specialize in contrarian investment strategies in the US Public and Private markets.
