Posted on 10/15/2022 7:47:52 AM PDT by karpov
California has banned the sale of internal combustion cars and light trucks beginning in 2035, natural-gas furnaces from 2030, and small gas engines starting in 2024. The state’s newest green plan is to install 5,000 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind by 2030 and 25,000 MW by 2045. That’s an average of 1,400 MW of new offshore wind yearly for the next 18 years—the equivalent of erecting one 14 MW turbine every four days for the next 23 years. Unfortunately, this is a fantasy so wild that even Don Quixote would blush—one that lawmakers should abandon if they’re serious about finding emissions-free solutions for the state’s pressing energy needs.
A key reason the plan won’t work lies at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific outer continental shelf is much steeper and shorter than the gentle-sloped Atlantic one, where eight states have imposed offshore wind mandates. Unless California intends to erect 850-foot tall, 14 MW behemoths—the current state of the art—near the shore, where they will upset the pristine views of wealthy residents, the state will need to use floating turbines to meet its goals. The coastal waters far enough offshore for turbines to remain unseen are too deep for seafloor anchoring.
Today, just three small floating wind turbine installations exist anywhere: two in Scotland, with a total capacity of 80 MW, and a 25 MW one in Portugal. Between them, they represent 14 turbines, all far smaller than the 14 and 15 MW wind turbines intended for the numerous Atlantic coast developments. Another facility off the Norwegian coast will install a total of 11 turbines producing 8.6 MW each, or 94.6 MW in total, at a cost of about $500 million. That’s more than $5.2 million per MW.
Offshore-wind proponents claim that costs will fall as the technology matures.
(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...
All of this is avoidable. Don’t vote Democrat.
With all the flatulence coming out of Cauliphonya, I don’t see why they think they need a “wind program.”
News and his friends know how to get rich off of any ill-conceived plan that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
Just look at the “high-speed rail” example.
At least California will have high speed rail out to the
turbine fields...
A perfect bookend for their train to nowhere.
Such a great idea! Why didn't I think of that?
I mean - what could go wrong?
And I'm sure it's a much cheaper and simpler solution than natural gas - right?
/sarc
I live in NYS.
It’s not uncommon to see huge, long wind turbine blades being trucked along our interstates...
Accompanied by one, two, three, or sometimes even four State Trooper vehicles.
In case anyone was wondering what State Troopers spend their time doing these days.
I’d love to see a breakdown of the man hours and money spent on THAT duty.
Well, 30 million acres in the gulf of Mexico for “wind generators” to supply 11 million homes. Hmmmmmm! So around 2 and a half acres per house. ROI doesn’t make sense. Then toss in a Cat 5........ How long to get them back on line? Yet ignos are buying this 🐎💩.
For reference, a modern coal fired power plant costs $3,000 per MW.
You read that right. The cost of those Norwegian offshore wind turbines is 1,700 times the cost of a coal fired power plant.
There are three cost elements in any power project -- capital costs, operating & maintenance costs, and fuel costs. Even with zero fuel cost, these renewable power plants cannot overcome the astronomically high capital cost. And this is before factoring in the abysmal capacity factor of renewable plants. They just don't produce power very often.
I'm old enough to remember when liberals went absolutely nuts over the visual blight of 23 offshore oil platforms. Where is the outcry over THOUSANDS of offshore wind turbines.
Billions in ANNUAL maintenance, repairs and replacements once the machines get broken in.
Disabled ships will be taking them out. USCG rescue will be at high risk trying to rescue those aboard disabled vessels in the windmill field.
Just for starters.
“...will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.’
And sea-birds thousands of lives.
America has put an end date on its own collapse.
“the equivalent of erecting one 14 MW turbine every four days for the next 23 years”.
They will use the train to nowhere to deliver the parts to the ship that brings it offshore.
First they have to actually finish the rail line which will never happen.
Like the Highspeed train to nowhere, this scheme is not even intended to be completed. It’s going to be a cash cow for corrupt politicians and insiders, milked until it crashes. It is clear now that the California bullet train will never be built. And the California grid cannot manage a huge influx of intermittent unpredictable power. This is the Achilles heel of the green new deal no one wants to acknowledge. The more intermittent junk power flowing into the grid, the less stable it becomes. And there is a limit to how much engineers can jigger the system to keep it aloft.
“...an ill-conceived plan that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars.”
Pretty much our specialty here in California.
No need. Just put a few turbines on each engine. There.
Agreed that we have hit the point where the graft is visible from miles away. That Achilles heel, while completely valid, is also quite useful in providing the excuse for more government intervention and control which furthers the graft.
No Fing way. The NIMBY TWOT’s will kill this off like they have every other reasonable energy tech.
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