Slashdot Mirror
First US Offshore Wind Power Park In Delaware
Dekortage writes "Offshore wind power company Bluewater Wind has announced an agreement to build America's first offshore wind turbine park off the coast of Delaware. 'Each turbine [will sit on] a pole about 250 feet above the waterline... the units are to be constructed to withstand hurricane-force winds. From the shore, the park will be visible only on clear winter days, and the turbines will be nearly invisible during summer months when Rehoboth Beach fills with vacationers. Each blade on the three-blade rotor is to be 150 feet long.' The wind farm will power 50,000 homes in Delaware, using about half of its capacity."
The wind farm will power 50,000 homes in Delaware
Lies. There are no homes in Delaware. Ask yourself, do you know anyone from Delaware?
I thought not.
Delaware is a plot between the banking industry and the DuPonts to get a few free Senators. Don't believe the lies.
All the states around the great lakes could use these as well. What surprises me, is that if you have the pole there, then why not add in tidal or even wave power as well? I believe that the expensive part about all this, is getting anchored securely to the floor.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Dogfish Head beer is made in Rehobeth DE.
That alone makes Delaware worth a vist, if only to check out the brewery and then drink oneself into oblivion... to avoid having to face the reality that you did, indeed, got to Delaware for a vacation.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
$1280/home/year is only about $107/home/month - that's close to what my electric bill is now (although I live in Texas, not Delaware). Doesn't really sound like they have a long way to go, cost-wise.
You have an excellent point...
However, electricity has tripled in the last 20 years from 5.3 to 16~ish cents. Assuming in the next 20 years, it does the same... then 1,280 would be roughly $430 adjusted for inflation- which will be a huge bargain.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
They're not answered anywhere on the company's website or in the article...
The answers to these questions are important when determining whether this project is worthy of support or not:
Who is paying to build the windfarm?
Who gets to keep the profit from the windfarm?
For the windfarm they wanted to build around here, the answers were "me" (through tax dollars), and "not me" (as in some private corporation got to keep the profit, even though they didn't pay for the initial investment). Luckily a sufficient number of people were able to see that they were getting screwed through the veil of "environmental responsibility" in order to get the project canceled.
> I was stationed at Dover AFB from 1971-1973 [...] I owned a motorcycle and a new 1869 Mustang.
After 102+ years, I don't think your horse was even alive, let alone "new".
Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
Furthermore, this is only half the capacity. In theory they can sell their surplus to other utility companies.
I actually live in Delaware, and for those fools who aren't in the know, Delaware has some of the lowest property taxes in the area, good rail transit, and good gun laws.
Now, the windmill battle in Delaware was an EPIC battle. On one side, you had the utility that wanted to build a gas turbine, and on the other side, you had the windmill people.
The backdrop is that the utility already doubled rates because of rising fuel prices, and the state was already importing a great deal of energy at spot (read high) prices. To work around this, the state needed its own generation.
Now, the utility wanted to build a new gas turbine facility, because the capital costs were pretty cheap and they had enterprise experience with both operating and constructing them. The windmill people wanted a windmill farm, and, they probably would have lost on merits of costs, because the windmills are nearly twice as expensive as a cheap gas turbine station. However, I think what's happened is that, between everyone being so spooked by the perpetually rising fuel costs, and, a newly enacted state sustainability law, they more or less had to build the wind mill.
It will be cool if it works, but I'm cynically betting on rolling blackouts on calm, hot summer days.
This is my sig.
Never before or since I was there have I ever been so bored, and I owned a motorcycle and a new 1869 Mustang.
That's your problem ... the Mustangs were a lot more fun once they started making them out of metal and putting gasoline engines into them!
If you ever have the chance, go to Tarifa, Spain. It's one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
The beaches are nice and wide with fine sand. It makes for a perfect place to ride wind powered boards and of course kite surfing in the ocean.
All of this wind also makes for the perfect location for windfarms. The area around Tarifa is spotted with the turbines. Honestly that was my favorite view was to stand on the beach and watch all of turbines happily spinning up on the mountains producing nice clean energy.
If I had faster internet I'd find you some links for pics.
http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
But that only begs the question...who would go to Delaware for a vacation?
If you're from New Jersey, just about anyplace else seems like paradise.....-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
You all suck. I'm from Delaware and I'm the coolest guy you know.
I:
-have Real Genius AND Aliens memorized word for word ....and am alive to type about it.
-speak 23 languages, 3 of which are actually used on this planet
-actually have a job
-changed my underwear recently
-am voting for the Cylons this upcoming election
and
-fought Chuck Norris
Beat that.
Why is it bad for the tourists? I don't think that I've ever seen a wind turbine with my own eyes. What's wrong with it?
A lot of wealthy and powerful people have bought homes in places that look out over the ocean, and they want to see the ocean, not a bunch of wind turbines or oil rigs or boat people. These people will say anything do stop the project, so if the area gets money from tourism, they say that tourists will stop coming. I agree with you, I don't see anything wrong with it. While I like looking at mountains or the ocean, if I was going to buy a home because of the view it would be a view of the Chicago skyline.
Also, the web site and the submission didn't mention why it would only be visible in winter. I thought that it would be visible in summer and not the winter, if anything. Does anybody understand why?
In the summer the humidity is higher and the air holds more water which reduces visibility. In the winter there is less humidity and visibility improves. It isn't stated in the summary, but it is implied that they are referring to clear, sunny days (which probably occur less often during the winter, but do still occur occasionally).
What could the long term affects be, other than those caused by the actual manufacturing of the turbine itself? Someone else on Slashdot, way back, suggested that if we wanted to see the affect of covering an entire continent with wind power generators, look at the affect the massive tree growth in Europe had on wind. The end result will be the same. That is to say, there won't be any problems. Wind power is just a strange form of Solar power. As long as there are temperature differentials between areas (caused by the sun) as well as other affects, there will be wind regardless of what we put in the way.
Sorry for the hijack, but I'm going to attempt to insert some of the backstory here. See, I've lived in Delaware for the last 4 years (I'll gladly accept your pity)
Getting this deal done was a seemingly never ending political nightmare. Delmarva, the recently deregulated power company has fought against it tooth and nail. They seemed to have been under the impression that signing a 25 year power deal at a fixed price was a bad idea because you know, the price of oil might go down in the future...
Our governor was initially pushing a "clean coal" plant and against this deal. Blue Water Wind finally got the deal done due, in a large part, to netroots action pressuring the state legislature to force a deal down Delmarva's throat if they didn't start to negotiate in good faith. Delaware doesn't have ANY power generation, and buys all of it's power from other states. Delmarva wanted to continue to do this in spite of the rediculous congestion on our power infrastructure.
Tommywonk has been doing a fantastic job covering this issue, and if anyone wants anymore information I'd suggest they head there. (Surprisingly he doesn't have an update about the deal being inked yet)
Anyway, a warning to green power advocates, if this case is any indication, expect the entrenched interests to fight you every step of the way.
It's interesting to note that most of the wind maps agree that offshore is the best place to stick a wind turbine. If you've ever stood by the ocean, there's always a stiff sea breeze coming from the ocean onto the land.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility