Wind Power is unreliable, even when you place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind puts a national treasure is at stake, yet "green leaders" want this project fast tracked. I guess I am missing something.
For now, see above...some food for thought.
6 comments:
Klaus, very interesting and thought provoking post. Thank you!
Amazing how Jim Gordon continues to sell Cape Wind as a 450mw project! That is the data, as seen on the Cape Wind website! 10mw!
Klaus:
Best case scenario, assuming that your research as usual is detailed and 10mw is the best we could hope for if this project is EVER constructed, (in the wrong location):
10 mv Cape Wind Best Case Scenario at the price of:
Proceeding without the benefit to the public of the determination IN ADVANCE of the areas offshore that are unsuitable for industrial development; no competitive bid or highest and best price paid to the public for the use and occupany that we will indeed be displace from; a developer land grab; no siting provisions; illegal spot zoning; a precedent setting project; untested technology in harsh at times inaccessible marine conditions; navigational hazards to major transportation and commercial routes; no comprehensive ocean policy to govern the OCS; DOD confirmed radar interference by wind towers with risk inherrent; no exit strategy for a failed mission; predicted mortality of up to 6,600 birds annually; a taking of marine mammals by harassment; adverse effects on marine life that extends to seals, whales; finfish some endangered; a threat to heritage trades-and the aboriginal fishing rights of a sovereign nation; safety of search and rescue operations compromised; adverse visual impact to historic districts and NHLs; violation of State Sanctuary, etc.,
AND, WE are offering generous tax benefits and subsidies of $1 billion dollars to a private developer in exchange for all of this?
Does Cape Wind, in your opinion, make any sense from an economic or environmental standpoint when you consider the trade-offs?
If all goes WELL??? Consider that the developer has never built one turbine, even on land, and that this is experimental technology, in a site selected by a developer, on a scale the same size as Manhattan Island, N.Y.
It strikes me as more of a freight train off the tracks than a solution to Global Warming, global conflict, our energy needs, that would be invisible if you listen to this projects proponents.
Pardon my soap-box style, but Cape Wind would be the worst Boondoggle that we've ever seen in the U.S. It certainly has more warning labels than the Big Dig ever had. If permitted, this project would be Bigger and Badder than the Big Dig.
Doesn't that picture show an average from winds over the last HOUR? Doesn't seem like that provides information about much of anything. Am I missing something? What's the real average if you sum across a couple of years -- is there data for that? How much does it vary? Is it highest at peak demand times like summer -- that's the kind of info that would be helpful...
just my 2 cents :)
tim - unfortunately, that data has not been provided to the public.
Cape Wind Associates say that the project will produce on average 130mw.
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