Coastal Issues | Energy and Government | Energy Facilities
Energy Facilities
A nuclear plant cooling tower along the Delaware Bay.
There are many types of energy facilities that have been, or are planned to be, sited in the coastal zone. For example:
- Electric generating plants
- Petroleum refineries and associated facilities
- Facilities used for the transportation, conversion, treatment, transfer, or storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG)
- Uranium enrichment or nuclear fuel processing facilities
- Oil and gas facilities, including platforms, assembly plants, storage depots, tank farms, crew and supply bases, and refining complexes
- Deepwater ports, for the transfer of petroleum and natural gas
- Pipelines and transmission facilities
- Onshore and offshore wind turbines and transmission cables
- Estuarine tidal barrages and impoundments
- Underwater turbines
- Wave energy facilities
- Ocean thermal energy conversion units
- Wind turbines to generate hydrogen
Brief descriptions of ocean energy technologies and a map of hydrokinetic and offshore wind energy projects can be found on NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service’s website.