A loose coalition of offshore wind opponents is forming from North Carolina to New England to the Great Lakes to question or challenge the expanding list of proposed projects. The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy has affiliated with the coalition, with our concerns over Dominion Energy Virginia’s proposed 5,280 megawatt project basically being economic. Massive worldwide economic forces are behind this push, most of them positioning the company to earn substantial profits from energy ratepayers. The Virginia State Corporation Commission, basically under orders from the General Assembly to approve the offshore wind proposed by Dominion, has estimated the all-in consumer cost of the Dominion project at more than $37 billion. It accounts for about a third of the $807 annual increase in residential electric bills the SCC has projected by 2030, with the power provided dependent on unreliable wind. >click to read< 11:55
Category Archives: Offshore Wind/Industrialization
Offshore Wind Farms: Why Wind Power Expansion Plans Don’t Add Up
Akin to pushing on string, you can keep building these things ad infinitum and add nothing in terms of meaningful power generation capacity. It doesn’t matter whether a wind power fleet comprises a hundred, a thousand or a million wind turbines, when the wind stops blowing, they will deliver an almighty, collective doughnut. And it’s their frequent zero output efforts that bring us to the current net-zero madness. And despite the colossal failure of wind power to deliver during 2021, those pushing net-zero targets are pushing zero reliability targets, too. The UK ‘must build equivalent of worlds biggest wind farm every 10 weeks for next 20 years’ to hit net zero targets >click to read< 10:49
Whirling ‘Triffids’ are now cluttering our coastlines
For years now, subsidised wind energy investors have been razing ridgelines, felling forests, and slicing birds, bats, and insects. But neighbours and nature-lovers are fighting back. So now the wind speculators race for off-shore space in shallow seas. ‘The Day of the Triffids’ is coming for coastal communities as these towers of whirling knives accelerate their invasion of shallow coastal waters. They pose a lethal danger to sea birds – beheading or de-winging pelicans and petrels, seagulls and sea eagles, gannets and grebes, kites and gliders. They also endanger coastal shipping, barges, helicopters, fishermen, and tourists. And the noise pollution from pile driving and turbine whine is affecting whales and seals. >click to read< 15:22
Not Right: Offshore Wind Farm Turbines Threaten Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales
The next wind industry victim appears to be the endangered Atlantic Right Whale, which already has plenty of offshore industrial activity to contend with. But oil and gas extraction, international shipping, and commercial fishing have obvious embodied economic benefits. Whereas, the only economic benefit derived from wind power is the subsidies it attracts. No subsidies. No wind power. It’s that simple. So, if a bunch of crony capitalists and their apologists get their way, get ready to kiss goodbye to the Atlantic Right Whale.,, What a pro wind power scientist says. Mark Baumgartner, a senior scientist and marine ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said in a phone interview that he understands vessel activities and associated construction can seem alarming, but said he doesn’t “envision a lot of impact” on the right whale from wind farms. [he clearly hasn’t given it a second’s consideration, but why would he?]. >click to read< 12:31
Biden’s Offshore Wind Farm Folly Is a Waste of Energy and Money
After realizing that offshore wind turbines only supply about two percent of all US grid energy (and about one percent worldwide), the Biden Administration has decided it needs a big push. It hasn’t cogitated that just maybe there’s a reason for this. There is: it’s called “physics.” The administration’s goal is a lofty thirty gigawatts of offshore wind operating by 2030, compared to currently just forty-two megawatts of offshore wind from a grand total of seven turbines. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts so we’d have to increase output by about 700 times. By comparison, the largest US nuclear plant produces almost four gigawatts of power, while a Japanese one produces twice that. Hence, four nuclear plants could produce more energy than the entire Biden plan. >click to read< 13:47
Anti-salmon farming activist Alexandra Morton to give special presentation for Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory
Alexandra Morton has been called “the Jane Goodall of Canada” because of her passionate thirty-year fight to save British Columbia’s wild salmon from salmon farms. Her account of that fight is both inspiring and a roadmap for resistance to industrial-scale aquaculture. Morton has agreed to give a special lecture virtually from her home in British Columbia on December 06, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. (EST) as part of the MDIBL Science Café series. This event is free and open to the public, but attendees must register in advance. A question-and-answer session will follow. “This important conversation comes at a critical time for Frenchman Bay and Maine as we face the rising challenge of industrial-scale aquaculture,”,,,, >click to read<, and register! 10:55
Totally Torched: Low-Cost Offshore Wind Farm Power Claims Go Up In Smoke
Europe’s great wind drought continues, unabated. Adding to the wind industry’s woes, its claims that offshore wind power is ‘free’ and getting cheaper all the time have been totally torched – again. Over the last two years, Andrew Montford has been keeping a close eye on the financial reports produced by the UK’s offshore wind power outfits. What the books reveal runs counter to the spin and propaganda dished up in the media about the cost of offshore wind power. Andrew provides another helpful update,,, >click to read< 11:40
Ratepayer Lawsuit! Review of South Fork Wind Farm project found power shortfalls during peak summer periods
LIPA in 2017 decided to move ahead with the South Fork Wind Farm project despite internal findings that its ability to produce energy during critical summer-peak times would be limited to around half the days it was needed, according to a confidential review done for LIPA. Last Thursday, the nonprofit Government Justice Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Long Island ratepayers alleging that LIPA “ignored its own criteria for power production resources” in entering into a contract for the South Fork Wind Farm. In a statement, LIPA said its evaluation of the project, “took all technical considerations into account, including those described in the report, as well as the environmental benefits” of offshore wind. “As with all wind projects, it was determined that the totality of benefits outweighed the variable nature of wind power,”,,, >click to read< 13:40
Democrats And Republicans Debate Changes To Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Act
Everyone needs to watch this. You should be alarmed. >click to watch. 09:33
Watermen tackle offshore wind farm development concerns, company pushes (subsidized) economic benefit
“I just want to be able to go fishing.” Those were fisherman Jimmy Hahn’s words as he is one of many who are concerned about U.S. Wind offshore wind developments. Now with political leaders on their side, watermen hope to see some change moving forward. “Those guys have really stepped up to the plate. “People who buy electricity in the state are paying an extra amount in order to subsidize the windmills. That means that someone should stand up for these taxpayers. If we’re going to spend taxpayer dollars to build these windmills and subsidize them there should be proper oversight,” Representative Harris said. Another concern that came up Wednesday by waterman and Congressman Harris was the possibility of U.S. Wind not being an actual U.S. based company. >click to read< 09:03
Fishermen feel “railroaded” – Standoff at sea sours fishermen, US Wind relations
After an on the water standoff between commercial fisherman Jimmy Hahn and a US Wind survey boat, Rep. Andy Harris met with area fisherman to discuss encroachment into fishing areas. The closed meeting Wednesday, also attended by state Sen. Mary Beth Carozza, included more than 12 fishermen primarily from Ocean City,, “If these wind mills are allowed to be placed out here, we’re out of business. You’ll no longer see any fresh seafood coming into Ocean City,” Hahn said.,, “It means a great deal having Rep. Harris listen,” he said. “You have to have someone to speak up. We’re just getting railroaded and we don’t have any say at all.” >click to read< 14:50
Offshore Wind Farms: ‘I am not yet convinced’
This rollercoaster of renewable energy developments is being built, we are told, to replace our dependency on the oil industry for our power supplies, but will it? The wind turbines will require regular maintenance and oil changes during their lifetime,,, But the maintenance of the offshore developments proposed in the seas around Shetland and beyond, in unpredictable and often extreme weather conditions will be a whole different matter. If the regular maintenance cannot be provided by sea, will it then be done by helicopter, what would be the environmental cost of that? Has the environmental cost of the lifetime maintenance of any of the windfarms been taken into consideration? >click to read< 07:23 By William Polson
Maine aims to create first floating offshore wind project on federal waters
Gov. Janet Mill’s office on Friday submitted an application with BOEM to lease a 15 square mile area in the Gulf of Maine about 30 miles off the coast. “Maine is uniquely prepared to create good-paying jobs across the state and reduce or crippling dependence on fossil fuels through the responsible development of offshore wind technology,”,,, “I believe that offshore wind and Maine’s fishing industry can not only coexist, but can help us build a stronger economy and a brighter, more sustainable future for Maine people,” Mills said. >click to read< 09:41
Vineyard Wind and Crowley to Turn Salem, Massachusetts Into Offshore Wind Port
Vineyard Wind said Thursday it has partnered up with the City of Salem, in Massachusetts, and Crowley Maritime Corporation to create a public-private partnership aimed at establishing Salem Harbor as the state’s second major offshore wind port, alongside a similar site in New Bedford. Vineyard Wind estimates that the project, which is still contingent on approval by the state of Massachusetts, would create up to an estimated 400 full-time equivalent yearly jobs during the revitalization of the port and up to another 500 full-time jobs over the first five years for construction and staging and also day-to-day port operations, for a total of 900 full-time equivalent jobs. >click to read< 07:52
Fishermen Are Making Their Last Stand Against Offshore Wind. Really? When?!! I don’t want to miss it!
U.S. Fishermen Are Making Their Last Stand Against Offshore Wind – In Massachusetts, the fishing advocates who sued BOEM say that the federal government ignored their requests for more rigorous scientific study of offshore wind turbines’ effect on fishing, as well as their concerns over wind turbines making it harder to traverse to fishing grounds, among other grievances. “This project is really important because it is the first one,” says Annie Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), the coalition suing the federal government. “We need to make sure that the government and the offshore wind industry aren’t just paying lip service to other ocean users.” >click to read< Lip service? How about fighting instead of nuzzling, aligning, and political pandering?!! Read about Joes bird protection’s, but never once mentions the wind farms. >click< 06:00
Offshore wind won’t fish – There is no compatible mixing of wind turbines and fishing!
The endangered species of the Maine fishing family is already dancing around the newly announced National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) restrictions to protect the right whales from gear entanglement. Add several 10,000-ton floating wind turbines, and even more whale restrictions on the NOAA docket (98 percent gear reduction in 10 years), and you have a severely impacted Maine fishing industry.,, I fear NOAA is more a friend to the Green New Deal than to our fishermen, or even our whales. By Rep. Sherman H. Hutchins, >click to read< 14:21
Scotland’s ‘Green’ Jobs Myth Implodes: Wind Turbine Manufacturer Sacks Hundreds
A job that depends on subsidies, isn’t really a job, at all, it’s a make-work scheme cooked up by closet socialists. And, so it is, with the so-called “green jobs” that self-evidently exist, and only exist, while the renewable energy subsidies keep flowing. So, it should come as no surprise that the jobs “created” in association with those industries are an easy come, easy go, kind of affair.,, The South Korean-owned company running Britain’s only UK facility for manufacturing onshore and offshore wind towers based in Scotland has gone into administration. CS Wind (UK) had been seen as a key part of the green jobs revolution in Scotland. But its factory in Machrihanish, Argyllshire was down to just one full-time member of staff for nearly a year after a slump in orders. The announcement was met with anger from Unite Scotland who slammed the green jobs “myth”. >cluck to read< 11:19
Offshore windfarms – some of the important actors
While I might have missed some of it, I haven’t seen much discussion of “who’s on first” vis-à-vis offshore windfarm development. Considering this, and considering that their development and the development of other controversial (at least to “historical” users of our nearshore and offshore waters) has the potential to severely impact or perhaps destroy, destroy the domestic commercial fishing industry starting in the mid-Atlantic/New England, I thought it might be instructive to examine some of the corporations who are interested in/committed to this INDUSTRIALIZATION of the ocean areas waters that have fed so many of our citizens and provided onshore and offshore employment for fishing communities since pre-revolutionary times. By Nils Stolpe /FishNet USA >click to read< 19:15
Why Offshore Wind Farms Face Lawsuits – The American Coalition for Ocean Protection
Nantucket residents have filed a landmark lawsuit over federal approval of Vineyard Wind, the first industrial scale offshore wind project in the U.S. Federal law protects existing ocean uses: commercial fishing, vessel traffic, the viewshed, and endangered species from new energy projects. Since federal approvals of all offshore wind projects will likely use the same flawed process, a court win for this lawsuit may stop all the projects. Specifically, Ackrats is the group filing the complaint and is concerned about Vineyard Wind’s negative impact on the North Atlantic right whale, “one of the most critically endangered species on the entire planet.” Those Nantucket residents are not alone. Beach communities from North Carolina to Maine and the Great Lakes joined together to form the American Coalition for Ocean Protection. >click to read< 16:13
Fishing group’s lawsuit challenges fed review of offshore wind project
A second group has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the government’s approval of the offshore wind project that is expected to generate cleaner electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts starting in late 2023. A coalition of fishing industry groups called the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on Monday to review the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval of the Vineyard Wind I project, arguing that the green light “adds unacceptable risk” to the fishing industry without addressing its long-held concerns. >click to read< 12:18
Feds botched the review of Vineyard Wind, lawsuit alleges – Concern over right whales in lawsuit
A group of Nantucket residents opposed to an offshore wind farm planned for waters south of the island filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop its construction, arguing that several federal agencies violated laws intended to protect endangered species. BOEM and NOAA, which are named in the suit, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Vineyard Wind, a joint project of a Danish company and a U.S. subsidiary of the Spanish energy giant, Iberdrola, also declined to comment. Vallorie Oliver, another Nantucket resident and group member, argues federal officials haven’t provided adequate research to back up their claims that the wind project will have minimal impact on the right whales and other marine life. >click to read< – Concern about endangered right whales cited in lawsuit over Nantucket Wind Farm – ACK Residents Against Turbines said Vineyard Wind’s proposed project of some 60 turbines 22 kilometres south of the island is in a crucial area for foraging and nursing for the species, which researchers estimate number less than 400. Mary Chalke, a Nantucket resident and member of the opposition group, said the lawsuit isn’t just about Vineyard Wind, but other turbine projects also in the pipeline up and down the Eastern Seaboard. >click to read< 17:35
Offshore wind farms will have ‘major’ impacts on commercial fishing. Meanwhile, in New Bedford,,,
Development of the South Fork Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island would will have an overall “major” adverse impact on commercial fishing, according to a newly released federal study.,, Mark Philips, a commercial fishermen operating out of Greenport, cast doubt on the notion that climate change and fishing presented greater threats than the turbines themselves to his fishing activities.,, With wind farms planned from Maine to North Carolina, he sees his fishing options collapsing, even if, as the study points out, planners identified and excluded the most productive fishing grounds from the wind-energy areas. >click to read< – New Bedford fishermen, officials question New York offshore wind areas as auction nears >click to read< – 09:24
Please Congress, we need real energy solutions, not your offshore wind farm fantasy!
200 small nuclear reactors are presently powering 160 ships and submarines all around the world, and have been for decades. What’s on foot is a move to bring those reactors onshore and use them to shore up power grids being wrecked by the chaotic intermittency of wind and solar. STT promotes nuclear power because it works: safe, affordable, reliable and the perfect foil for those worried about human-generated carbon dioxide gas,,, One of the feeble ‘arguments’ against it, is that nuclear power plants are of such vast scale that they take longer to build than the pyramids of Giza, and cost twice as much. SMR technology takes the sting out of that case. And, as Walter Starck outlines below, SMRs provide the perfect opportunity to reintroduce our good friends logic and reason into the debate about what powers us now, and the future. >click to read< 12:37
A citizen writes: More discussion needed on offshore wind farm energy
Regarding the recent Press editorial, “State preempting local roadblocks to wind energy helps NJ, especially Ocean City”: The editorial is full of many of the misperceptions about the 100 planned (in the first phase),, seems to assume that everybody is for green energy, On a website, 10,980 people have signed a petition to stop this specific project. The Ocean City Council has done its homework. That is why they are pushing back on the state of New Jersey stripping them of their right to govern themselves in this matter. >click to read< by Ed Roland 19:07
Bad Press for Block Island Wind Farm! The blades ain’t turning, questions of cables, and huge $$$ extra’s!
The Block Island wind farm has largely shut down – And so I can understand why no one wants to talk about how four of the farm’s five turbines have, without any public notice, stopped running this summer. I spent the better part of a week trying to learn why, It was an unsatisfying explanation. More troubling, the reburying of the cable, The last estimate to rebury the cable was $30 million, I can understand why Ørsted and the other wind company contenders jockeying for new development up and down the Eastern Seaboard might be worried about bad press for the Block Island system, given the growing opposition to wind farms from the fishing industry, consumer activists and coastal communities where cables are proposed to come ashore. Thank you for the exposure, David Collins! >click to read< 12:58
When interlopers bullshit ignorant politicians! – Offshore wind experts testify in Washington
At a virtual hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, the Environment, and Cyber hosted by U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Bourne, offshore wind experts gave testimony on the progress of the industry to date and what would benefit its ongoing development in America. Keating prefaced the hearing by describing offshore wind as a “burgeoning, clean, and job-creating energy industry.” Keating called the hearing an opportunity for learning and cooperation and noted America is positioned to establish offshore wind farms thanks to “monumental achievements” made by European pioneers, starting with a 1991 Danish farm, Europe’s first. >click to read< 08:52
Wind farms: Where are all of the ocean saviors?
The precautionary principle has deep roots finding expression in sayings such as ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ or ‘better safe than sorry’. The use of the precautionary principle in ecosystem management is especially important,,, Repeated failures of management highlighted by the collapse of northern cod off Canada, the California sardine fishery, and herring, sandeels, blue whiting and capelin stocks in the North Sea have demonstrated the need for this approach in order to help address scientific uncertainty. Yet when it comes to protecting huge swaths of ocean,,, Clog our near shore and offshore waters with hulking (approaching 1,000 feet tall today, who knows what’s in store for tomorrow?) structures supporting huge rotors with tips moving through the air at velocities approaching 200 miles per hour? So what? Festoon our sea beds with electrical cables carrying huge amounts of electricity, And what of undersea server farms,,, >click to read< 15:43 Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet USA. © 2021 Nils E. Stolpe, July 31
HEY POLITICIANS !!! The levelized cost of floating offshore wind farms – It is a financial disaster.
Last year, I wrote a blog post setting out the financial situation of Hywind, the UK’s first commercial floating offshore windfarm, and indeed the first in the world. It was an ugly tale, with a hugely lossmaking operation kept in the black only by a vast transfer of subsidies. However, Hywind has recently published its second set of financial results since it became fully operational,,, Situated off Peterhead, in what appears to be something of a sweet spot for wind, yadda. yadda, Meanwhile its costs are extraordinarily high. We already knew that its capital cost, at £8.9m/MW. was around three times the that of fixed offshore wind. But its opex costs are also much higher, >click to read<, Also a follow up article: “Clues to the levelised cost of tidal stream” – Yesterday, I set out the levelised cost of floating offshore wind turbines. In this article, I will look at what we know about the levelised cost of tidal stream energy, and show that it is probably even higher. >click to read< 15:32
Whales, Warming and Offshore Wind Farms – Lobstering is under attack
As Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham described it, three seemingly combined forces are aligned and have put the bull’s-eye on the men and women in Maine whose lives depend on lobstering, whales, warming and wind power. The right whale protection consortium has heightened its efforts to alter nearly every aspect of Maine’s primary fishing industry by pushing the federal fisheries agencies to limit, reduce and even eliminate the fishing methods currently employed in the local waters and the Gulf of Maine,,, At best, the supposed science is leaning toward saving whales, with little regard for the men and women who are active conservationists every day while doing their jobs. The warming water folks, often the same groups and agencies that are involved with the right whale restrictions, also want to promote bureaucratic rules that will severely impact all forms of fishing. >click to read< 11:06
