Offshore wind industry in dire straights

[demarpaint]

I used to fish in the NYC area, Any type of structure had lots of life on it and made for great fishing as long as you kept the fish from tangling into it. Lots of oil platforms in the gulf also had great fishing, A friend of mine used to fish from a platform when he had downtime and caught nice sized fish.

I did my fair share of fishing off Long Island and the Jersey shore. We preferred reefs, wrecks, and drifting. If you're interested in the complaints and problems the Long Island fisherman have with the wind farms there are a lot of articles about it on the web.

 

[andrew_j]

In a strange twist of politics in NJ, the Republicans are aligned with the environmentalists in questioning if off-shore wind projects are contributing to whale deaths.

what’s new on

 

[IndyIan]

The problem is that 40% doesn't justify spending >2x as much vs onshore wind, which is ~30%.

Here's a seasonality graph for the North Sea:

View attachment 177517

I think those are all climate models estimates? Anyways I'm sure the trend is reasonable, and given that until recently most of the UK had no wish for AC in the summer and they've got 14-16 hours of day light as well, so they should need less power in the summer.... I think to that offshore is worth a bit more as the UK could have all its good onshore sites filled up pretty easily. Some areas should be left mostly clear of windfarms.

IMO probably 2-3-400 years from now, people will run the numbers and find it would've just been way easier to curb CO2 emissions in the early 2000's instead of just ignoring it and trying to deal with the consequences.... But we'll see!

 

[OVERKILL]

I think those are all climate models estimates?

They are measurements made at different points in the North Sea as part of a wind pattern study.

Anyways I'm sure the trend is reasonable,

Well, the trend is pretty similar to what we see in Ontario, wind CF craps the bed in the summer, has better performance during the winter, but still exits the picture during extreme cold events.

and given that until recently most of the UK had no wish for AC in the summer and they've got 14-16 hours of day light as well, so they should need less power in the summer....

Yes, their lack of AC use is a big component of why they so use much less electricity per capita than we do. The others are that they use gas for many things we don't at the same scale (cooking, dryers...etc) and their electricity prices are about 5x higher than ours, so there is less incentive to try and electrify things.

I think to that offshore is worth a bit more as the UK could have all its good onshore sites filled up pretty easily. Some areas should be left mostly clear of windfarms.

The UK has an onshore wind moratorium (due to NIMBYism) which is why the focus has been on more expensive offshore. As I noted, the 10% bump in CF doesn't justify the 100% increase in cost, and that's why the industry appears to be stalling.

IMO probably 2-3-400 years from now, people will run the numbers and find it would've just been way easier to curb CO2 emissions in the early 2000's instead of just ignoring it and trying to deal with the consequences.... But we'll see!

Certainly possible. France's decarbonization success had nothing to do with climate change, just like Ontario's. We pursued fossil alternatives for energy security reasons.

 

[alarmguy]

I used to fish in the NYC area, Any type of structure had lots of life on it and made for great fishing as long as you kept the fish from tangling into it. Lots of oil platforms in the gulf also had great fishing, A friend of mine used to fish from a platform when he had downtime and caught nice sized fish.

Yeah, a lot of this can be true. We used to fish the Ambroise Tower outside of NY Harbor as a 100% sure way to catch bluefish any time of day.
Also of course the Cholera Banks
I just dont know the impact on commercial fishing and we know windmills slaughter seabirds though I am sure not as much as land based.

OK BUT HERE IS THE PROBLEM FOR LONG ISLAND, I just learned this, they are to put windmills on an already popular fishing spot. Though it seems the FEDs made some concessions ... hmmmm ...
The Cholera Banks. I might be upset about that. From the time I was a teenager with my own boat to the day (almost) that I moved south we fished those banks with anything from a 18 foot runabout to a 28 foot cruiser. We would work from the Banks, to the NJ Highlands to the Ambroise.

BOEM adjusts NY wind energy area for December lease sale

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is preparing its New York offshore wind energy lease sale, after removing almost 2,000 acres of fish habitat. The Cholera Bank, an undersea elevation that

www.workboat.com

Im not up to date on this stuff anymore, Loved growing up and spending most my life on Long Island, but glad I moved out 15+ years ago. I dont know, the place is just out of control. From completely finished Nuclear plant that even had its low power testing done, only to be shut down before it was allowed to start producing electricity after spending FIVE billion dollars to build it. Now expensive wind farms, outrageous property taxes as much as $1000 a month for a 1500 sq ft home... oh well. you get what you vote for.

 

[4WD]

Just seems like there is enough space for them on land - imagine these floating in the nightime darkness …

 

[4WD]

Went down to the coast yesterday - thick cloud cover and still - wind turbines were idle - GTG’s spun up …
New power lines going up - new pipelines being run …
Shallow water fishing boat with 300 HP outboard filling up with gasoline - pulled by DMax 2500 … Offshore boats with 4 of those …
All looked like more, not less …

 

[wpod]

I know a lot of fisherman that would be very happy to see these go away. I hope we don't use taxpayer money to bail them out.

Ha Ha .Not use tax payer money to bail the out.

 

[demarpaint]

Ha Ha .Not use tax payer money to bail the out.

Taxpayer money goes to bail out and subsidize a lot of stupid things imo, failing windmill companies could end up being another one of them.

 

[wings&wheels]

One just shed a blade and decorated Nantucket's beaches....big blades mean a lot of debris. Now is that flotsam or jetsam??