Another US offshore Wind Farm Generating Power

[peakbagger]

Vineyard Wind, country’s first large-scale offshore wind project, is producing clean electricity

The 62-turbine, 800 megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 project near Martha's Vineyard is officially producing clean electricity for Massachusetts.

www.wbur.org

Eight hundred Megawatts capacity is definitely a good sized chunk of power. I am looking forward to seeing the dispatch curves.

 

[woodgeek]

I'm tempted to say about time, but I won't. I think if in some alternative universe the Cape Wind project had gone through, it might've been a boondoggle, with a contractual price per kW of 30 cents, and small machines closer to shore. Rather than being a pathfinder, it might've retarded later development.

I'm hoping the GE machines have a long service life with minimal maintenance issues.

 

[peakbagger]

Siemens is definitely getting a black eye on wind turbine reliability these days.

 

[begreen]

Meanwhile, 300 MW of solar just came on line in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's largest solar farm is now fully online

Electricity providers Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and We Energies just brought Wisconsin's largest solar farm online.

electrek.co

 

[woodgeek]

Meanwhile, 300 MW of solar just came on line in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin's largest solar farm is now fully online

Electricity providers Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and We Energies just brought Wisconsin's largest solar farm online.

electrek.co

Given that the US is currently installing about 25 GW (capacity) utility solar per year, that WI facility is just what the US adds on average every 4 or 5 days. And this rate is expected to grow several fold over the next few years.

 

[begreen]

A big chunk of power in the NW comes from hydro. There is a lot of wind power in our region, but as the extreme cold settled in, the winds died. Solar production was low. It was up to natural gas, nuclear, and some coal to fill in. The local UW meteorology prof weighed in on this situation.

The Cold Truth About Renewable Energy in the Pacific Northwest

This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics

cliffmass.blogspot.com

 

[bigealta]

My parent's place on Block Island RI looks directly at the 5 windmills (the 1st offshore windmills in the country). They are not perfect in any way. It's frustrating to see at least 1 or 2 of them not spinning every time i'm up there. What a big waste. I'm not sure but i think it's because the demand for the Wind powered electricity is not there. So they shut down each 1, or 2, on rotating schedules.

I'm assuming they produce for contracted rates. Does anyone here know more detail about the business model on these Block Island windmills?

 

[woodgeek]

A big chunk of power in the NW comes from hydro. There is a lot of wind power in our region, but as the extreme cold settled in, the winds died. Solar production was low. It was up to natural gas, nuclear, and some coal to fill in. The local UW meteorology prof weighed in on this situation.

The Cold Truth About Renewable Energy in the Pacific Northwest

This blog provides updated forecasts and comments on current weather or other topics

cliffmass.blogspot.com

That post is absolutely ridiculous. In most areas, hydropower is considered 'renewable'. At the very least, it is sustainable and very low carbon. For example, the Scandinavian countries are held up as exemplars of decarbonized economies... and they are mostly hydropower too.

This massive and consistent hydropower is WHY Alcoa (and thus Boeing) are located in the PNW.

Why can't I look at the same plot and say 'PNW's renewable/low carbon energy system worked just as designed during the recent cold spell' ?? And still only used a miniscule amount of fossil energy!

Oh I know, wouldn't get clicks. He is scare mongering about a hypothetical solar+wind and no storage/backup system that will never be built. In a region that will certainly be late adopters to the solar+wind+battery model because of the large amount of cheap hydropower and poor solar resource.

This guy is just pointing out that intermittent sources of renewable energy are, um, intermittent. And since that seems to have less traction as a talking point lately, now folks like to point out such intermittency during weather events that the population finds scary. Boo!

As more solar and wind get fielded, we will see (1) intentional overbuilding (and intermittent curtailment) (2) fielding of mass storage (in increasingly cheap batteries) and (3) the maintenance and occasional use of backup sources (mostly fossil) to maintain supply.

Curtailment looks like 'inefficiency', but whatabout the thermodynamic inefficiency of thermal plants? When we see a huge plume of condensation from a cooling tower reaching miles into the sky, do we say 'Wow, what a massive amount of energy waste... we are losing more than half of the primary combustion energy we are putting in'? No, nobody does that.

But if a solar or wind farm gets curtailed for 20-30% of the time in a high renewable penetration area, folks say 'See... what a boondoggle that was... I can't believe we wasted all that money on it!' Even though the financiers of the project probably took such curtailment into account when they greenlighted the project!

That prof seems to be a bit of a character and gadfly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Mass

 

[woodgeek]

My parent's place on Block Island RI looks directly at the 5 windmills (the 1st offshore windmills in the country). They are not perfect in any way. It's frustrating to see at least 1 or 2 of them not spinning every time i'm up there. What a big waste. I'm not sure but i think it's because the demand for the Wind powered electricity is not there. So they shut down each 1, or 2, on rotating schedules.

I'm assuming they produce for contracted rates. Does anyone here know more detail about the business model on these Block Island windmills?

It has been discussed that the finances of the project were not great, and the project went ahead to pay for a submarine cable connecting the island to the mainland grid.

I would assume given the vintage (and relatively small size) of the units, their install and maintenance costs are not that great compared to the current machines being installed elsewhere. How they compare to the expensive power the island had before the cable is not something I have seen.

Did your parents bill go up or down after the project?

In other news, another island (Oahu) with a ton of solar (and curtailment) shut down its last coal plant in 2022. It just opened a large battery facility to provide better grid stability and to store some of the otherwise curtailed renewable energy.

A huge battery has replaced Hawaii's last coal plant

Plus Power’s Kapolei battery is officially online. The pioneering project is a leading example of how to shift crucial grid functions from fossil-fueled…

www.canarymedia.com

 

[RockCastile]

In most areas, hydropower is considered 'renewable'. At the very least, it is sustainable and very low carbon. For example, the Scandinavian countries are held up as exemplars of decarbonized economies... and they are mostly hydropower too.

In his blog, Mass says call remove hydro dams on the Snake River are "highly irresponsible." It sounds like the activists have quite an uphill grind to make that happen, but if it did, how would that change the calculus in the PNW?

The Kamath is getting freed. Is the Snake their next order of business?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[begreen]

That post is absolutely ridiculous. In most areas, hydropower is considered 'renewable'. At the very least, it is sustainable and very low carbon. For example, the Scandinavian countries are held up as exemplars of decarbonized economies... and they are mostly hydropower too.

Yes, poor phrasing and misleading graphing because hydrogeneration is separated out. He makes a clumsy argument that supplemental renewables are often low when needed the most. This is true, we need more storage for these times. Most of WA state's nuclear capacity has shut down and none built since the WPPSS fiasco and the hugely dirty mess that Hanford is.

That prof seems to be a bit of a character and gadfly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Mass

LOL, yes, he does have a tendency to once in a while stick his foot in his mouth when the topic veers off of weather. He got kicked off of the University's radio station for doing just that. And then he got kicked off another station for venting opinions. Too bad, he is a good meteorogist just a bit self-infatuated.