Green Insanity: Offshore Wind Project Cost Mind-Boggling $10K Per KW
Off of the shore of Block Island on the Rhode Island coast, five wind turbines are operating and supplying power to the island. It took years of state and federal policymaking, environmental impact assessments, and town hall meetings for the 30-megawatt wind farm to come to fruition due to its cost and degradation of vistas. It cost $300 million—$10,000 per kilowatt—about 10 times more than the cost of a new natural gas combined cycle unit. Further, it is 55 percent more costly than what the Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects a first-of-a-kind offshore wind unit to cost—$6,454 per kilowatt. >click to read<09:22
Great piece! Thank You!
And what do we get in return for 10K per KW for offshore wind?
Offshore Wind Industry Captain’s Candid Analogy on Offshore Wind’s High Cost & Technology Problems
The founding president of the offshore division of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, Anders Søe-Jensen of Vestas, addressing offshore wind costs in 2011 stated:
“It’s a bit like buying an old crappy car. It’s starts cheap, but spends most of the time in the workshop costing you a fortune, so you didn’t drive much, and your cost per driven mile is staggeringly high. It’s the same with the cost of energy when you look at capital expense and operating costs with overall production.”
https://breakingenergy.com/2011/12/13/vestas-offshore-wind-president-costs-may-kill-industry/
We are importing technology that fails, offshore wind tiubines, at a premium cost. Developers only have 10% “skin in the game”. We’re on the hook for $65+% projects’ construction cost. Add ports’ conversions, $150 mil for New Beford, add transmission ( Big$Transmission), purpose vessels (US flagged), Wind Turbine Blade Testing facility, $40 million in state & fed funding, first customer formed by an Enron former Director, Clipper Wind, was forced into bankruptcy.
This GREEN IS NOT SUSTAINABLE OR REALISTIC/ unless you’re a hedge fund or wind developers with politicians in your pocket.
Industry Week
2/14/18
In the US, “the cost of offshore wind farms will be 45% more than those built in Europe…”
“…new projects will require long-term supply agreements that guarantee developers can sell their power at above-market rates,..”
http://www.industryweek.com/economy/made-usa-turbines-cloud-us-offshore-wind
‘Hundreds of wind turbines could be SINKING due to design flaw’
“The fault was first discovered at the Egmond aan Zee wind farm in the Netherlands and affects those with single cylinder foundations…”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1265886/Sinking-turbines-cost-British-wind-farms-50million.html
The U.K. Supreme Court landmark judgement of 2017 will “change the legal landscape” of the offshore wind industry. The court identified failure of the offshore wind turbine single-cylinder, or monopole, standard design-code (J101).
The U.S. has adopted the U.K. offshore wind turbine single cylinder, monopole, foundation design-code (J101).
https://maritime-executive.com/article/landmark-case-changes-offshore-wind-legal-landscape
Overview
Load factors not considered in the single-cylinder, monopole, offshore wind turbine design-code:
‘Offshore Wind Foundations: Research Needs And Innovation Opportunities – Wind Systems Magazine’
“The need for design refinements can be traced back to the fundamental goal of design standards, which is to ensure that resistance is larger than the applied loads. The offshore wind industry, however, [cut, whose towers differ substantially from oil platforms in terms of loads and resistance, has adopted foundation design protocols of oil and gas installations but has selectively addressed only some of the characteristic differences of the two industries, and what’s more, has done so independently of each other. This has led to offshore wind foundation standards that lack an overall design philosophy, and have large built-in uncertainties in the characterization of loads and resistance — wind speed, wave height, wave kinematics and slam forces, steel and soil stiffness and strength, and soil-foundation interaction — uncertainties that are, in fact, disproportionately larger than the narrow window of performance requirements of offshore wind installations…”
http://www.windsystemsmag.com/article/detail/753/offshore-wind-foundations-research-needs-and-http://www.windsystemsmag.com/article/detail/753/offshore-wind-foundations-research-needs-and-innovation-opportunitiesinnovation-opportunities
Insurance industry source for insured offshore Wind corrosion issues-
Summary: Offshore wind turbines are corroding internally & externally & industry is challenged to correct ongoing problems.
http://www.materialsperformance.com/articles/material-selection-design/2016/03/corrosion-risks-and-mitigation-strategies-for-offshore-wind-turbine-foundations
‘Wind turbines are wearing too fast at the world’s largest offshore farm’
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/london-array-offshore-wind-turbines-near-kent-wearing-too-fast-qdv76g7cm?utm_source=CCNet+Newsletter&utm_campaign=fd2b85a24f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fe4b2f45ef-fd2b85a24f-20161961