While offshore wind power brings clean energy to mankind, it also brings irreversible damage to marine life and ecosystems. Oysters, as important city builders in New York State, let us see an opportunity to address the issue. After research, we propose that the government, the private sector and low-income groups as joint participants, win-win cooperation to promote energy equality and build a sustainable economic environment. Through the design of the integration of an offshore wind farm and an ocean ranch, the planning of activities for a fisherman community transit, and the sustainable transformation of an old water plant in the low-income community of Hempstead. Reconstruct the fishery industry chain, and build a sustainable order network from ocean to community, from energy to ecology based on accessible energy.
New York State has proposed an ambitious energy policy to end its reliance on chemical energy by 2050 through the use of new energy sources, including wind power. Therefore, we focused on south fork wind farm, an offshore wind power project near Long Island, to carry out this research.
During the research, we found that while offshore wind power brings clean energy to mankind, it also brings irreversible damage to marine life and ecosystems. Oysters, as important city builders in New York State, let us see an opportunity to address the issue. The installation of turbines is both a risk and an opportunity.
Based on the research, we began to think that "Could we imagine a new environmental policy where parallel to energy production, there is a commitment to improving ecosystems and our societies?”
Air right exchange makes us realize that the current policies are mostly biased toward developers, and instead of only considering developers. Can public policies take a different role to benefit the general public and the ecological environment? Through the study of the economic order in the book energy democracy, we wonder if we can go further? Therefore, we propose that the government, the private sector and low-income groups as joint participants, win-win cooperation to promote energy equality and build a sustainable economic environment.
Through the design of the integration of an offshore wind farm and an ocean ranch, the planning of activities for a fisherman community transit, and the sustainable transformation of an old water plant in the low-income community of Hempstead, we hope to reconstruct the fishery industry chain, and build a sustainable order network from ocean to community, from energy to ecology based on accessible energy.