David Middleton:
Deepwater Wind LLC is on the verge of completing the first offshore wind farm in U.S. waters, a milestone for an industry that has struggled for a more than decade to build in North America.
Workers have installed blades on four of the five 589-foot turbines at the site off the coast of Rhode Island and construction may be complete as early as this week, according to Chief Executive Officer Jeff Grybowski. The 30-megawatt, $300 million project is expected to begin commercial operation in early November.
“We will finish in advance of our original schedule,” Grybowski said in an interview at a dock on Block Island. “And we are in-line with our budget.”
After years of false starts, the offshore wind industry appears to be gaining momentum in the U.S. The federal government has awarded 11 leases to companies to develop projects along the East Coast, off New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia. This month, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed a bill requiring utilities to buy 1,600 megawatts of electricity from offshore wind farms over the next decade. And in the coming weeks, New York State plans to release a long-range plan to develop wind farms off the coast of Long Island.
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$300,000,000 / 30 MW = $10,000,000/MW
Nuclear power plants can be built for less than $6,000,000/MW. Combined cycle natural gas power plants cost less than $1,000,000/MW. And… nuclear and natural gas can operate at 85-90% of capacity. While offshore wind turbines can only be expected to operate at less than 50% of capacity.
The economics of offshore wind don’t make any sense at all unless electricity prices are well over 20¢/kWh… like they are in much of Europe.
Assumptions: Capacity Factor 48% Operating & Maintenance Cost $50/MWh
Fortunately for the owners of the Block Island Wind Farm, they will be getting Euro-sized electricity prices…
30 megawatts is peanuts. Won’t power very much. A lot of real estate being used to provide a small amount of intermittent power. Not sure how we can call this progress. Looks more like going backwards. So it’s no surprise progressives love it.
Oh for goodness sake Nuclear? really there is no safe way none the waste is held on site not in some deep cave somewhere. Why go there anyway? Why not coal? why not NG, why not a law to capture and use the methane from landfills?
Oh it seems the technology for 0 that is zero zip nada emmissions is already here, why isn’t this technology famous the greenies chasing it and demanding the coal plants and cars get retrofitted? Uh cause they want ugly hideous solar panels hogging the farmland, fields of them, bird killing windmills if I wack an eagle its a huge fine, they are allowed to do so.
Plasma yes the tech is here and can even be put on your car for zero emmissions.
CO2 Dissociation Technologies
http://davidgyurth.com/ I would not be against the government investing in this technology, til solar can catch up to fossil power.
Nuclear is bad the waste from those plants look where it is, how close is your home from these totally unsafe energy producers, I would be for shutdown and replacement with coal fired facilities, save the NG to heat our homes keeping its price down, for the children.
We need to look for the best in science not hippies painting metal black to collect solar rays.