New Jersey Off Shore Wind Farm starting to generate power

[peakbagger]

It will be interesting to see how this farm will do. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/decades-europe-turning-blades-send-150158096.html

It makes a lot more sense to put these big turbines offshore near the users compared to installing them in rural Northern Maine and having to build a new transmission line to get the power to the grid and eat the transmission losses. Off shore wind is more dispatchable as the daily winds are more predictable.

Orsted has recently canceled some similar projects as the economics got worse (and some argue they underbid them hoping to get their foot in the door). SIemen's their competitor in Europe is in big financial trouble due to some reliability issues and GE seems to be holding back on these big offshore farms. The state of Maine is trying to become the big floating turbine market but I think the bets are still out on the commercial feasibility of it.

 

[begreen]

Hasn't Europe been doing this as scale for over 10 yrs now? This makes it sound like they are all failures. No successes?

 

[woodgeek]

Any word on how they are handling the construction ships... do they have US-flagged ships now? OR are the building out of Nova Scotia or something?

 

[DBoon]

I recall reading that there is a what will be a US-flagged ship that is due to complete construction in the next few months (certainly less than a year), being built in Louisiana that will meet the requirements for the offshore wind farms in the Northeast. I freely admit to not having a source handy to link, so I stand ready to be corrected on some of the details.

 

[begreen]

Would that be the EcoEdison?

A ship for windpower takes shape in Louisiana oil country

HOUMA, La. (AP) — In Louisiana bayou country, where oil rig supply ships are as much a part of the waterside scenery as shrimp boats, a new kind of seagoing behemoth is taking shape that marks offshore wind power's growing presence in the energy seascape.

apnews.com

 

[peakbagger]

Maine is betting on floating windmills that can be towed to site and then anchored. There is still need for support vessels but muck smaller. They need a big on shore facility to build them. They have had a spot set aside for decades for industrial investment on the coast but it has been undeveloped and has become popular with the locals for recreation as access to shorefront has become rare in Maine for the general public due to development pressure. It has become another Nimby fight. It is the right thing to do considering that the Gulf of Maine seeing major climate impacts but the public attention span is very short compared to how long it's going to take to transition away from the old method of generating power. No doubt, like NJ, a lot of anti renewable money is in the background. The fossil industry has billions in profits that they are willing to spend on the sly to extend the transition away from fossil fuels.

 

[begreen]

The fossil industry has billions in profits that they are willing to spend on the sly to extend the transition away from fossil fuels.

As far as I can tell they are shifting from transportation to massive investments in oil and gas plastics refineries. There's a new mega refinery going up in China right now with Exxon as a partner. The sum total emissions for these current refineries is estimated to be the equivalent of 57 millon cars.

 

[weee123]

This is in NY, not NJ. The NJ project got canceled. Orsted said they weren’t getting enough tax incentives. All of the people that were against them in the area also didn’t help.

Sucks because that would’ve been years worth of work for me and the other union trades in the area.

Some of the infrastructure was already built for the construction of the turbines as well.

 

[DBoon]

Would that be the EcoEdison?

Yeah, that's the one. Thanks begreen!