First US Offshore Wind Farm To Usher In New Era For Industry (ap.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Associated Press: The nation's first offshore wind farm is set to open off the coast of Rhode Island this fall, ushering in a new era in the U.S. for the industry. Developers, federal regulators and industry experts say the opening will move the U.S. industry from a theory to reality, paving the way for the construction of many more wind farms that will eventually provide power for many Americans. Deepwater Wind is building a five-turbine wind farm off Block Island, Rhode Island to power about 17,000 homes. The project costs about $300 million, according to the company. CEO Jeffrey Grybowski said the Block Island wind farm enables larger projects because it proves that wind farms can be built along the nation's coast. Offshore wind farms, which benefit from strong winds because of their location, are being proposed near population epicenters that lack the space to build on land. Indeed, several states are pushing ambitious clean energy goals, which include offshore wind. Among them is California, which has a target of generating 50 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030. Vermont hopes to hit 55 percent by next year and Hawaii has called for 100 percent renewable power by 2045.

Comments

Re:Can anyone say wind turbine boondoggle?

[LynnwoodRooster]

So how long do they last? You castigate Ravenshrike for pulling things out of his butt, but you do the same and say they will be active for much longer than 20 years.

Additionally, direct spray isn't needed to corrode your metal. Ask anyone who lives near the ocean - direct exposure isn't needed, and most salt spray/salt fog tests do not need to directly spray saltwater at the object - just high salt content moisture in the air is damaging.

Lastly, given that Denmark has extremely high power rates (about 3X that in the US), perhaps they are the perfect example of why offshore wind is not really a good bet - the power generated is very expensive due to very high maintenance costs. What I see is that offshore wind maintenance costs are on par with the TOTAL cost of electricity for much of the US. Just maintenance alone costs more than the entire cost of power generation. That's not a good sign...

Re:a maintenance nightmare

[dbIII]

As a former materials engineer (now computer type) I can tell you there is a lot of epoxy in those windmills and they've been running in coastal environments for decades since that's where a lot of wind is. Those expensive materials are already in use and the lifetime of parts in a full marine environment isn't likely to be much less than some existing coastal units that get a huge amount of salt water sprayed over them already.

Maintenance on land based windmills is expensive and dangerous

Yes but that's very well known now and factored in. It's not as if demand is flat so it's not so hard to bring a tiny (in terms of generating capacity) unit offline until it can be fixed.