The Wind Beneath the Waves
The $2.6 billion off shore Cape Wind project failed to meet deadlines to secure financing and to begin construction and the heavily subsidized wind farm is now going to “sink below the waves.” The millions in taxpayer subsidies already prove that this thing should not float. While other off shore wind farms are planned, falling natural gas prices are reducing the urgency to find other sources of energy.
Heavy investments by government and others into renewable energies are really counterproductive. Aggressively introducing theses sources of energy into the energy market is extremely costly to all those involved, especially the taxpayers. The energy market will openly bring in energy sources such as wind and solar, when it is ready to bring them in (if ever). So far, there has been no reason for the energy market to move away from oil, natural gas and coal.
So far, there has been no reason for the energy market to move away from oil, natural gas and coal. –
AMEN!
The dirty little secret of offshore wind plants is the greatly reduced life expectancy that one can expect due to corrosion, making these plants economically unsound. I am waiting to see the results published for the wind turbine units currently installed in the North Sea regarding their “availability” over a long period of time. Based on my years working on equipment for use in seawater environments, I expect repair costs to be very high and downtime to be extensive. This fly in the ointment will undoubtedly be covered up as much as possible.
The costs of replacing and repairing offshore wind plants sound very expensive. I am also looking forward to seeing those results, maybe another blog post will come from it.