From the New York Times, May 23, 2018
By Stanley Reed and Ivan Penn
“…Massachusetts is looking to capitalize on wind technology, and aims to add 1,600 megawatts of electricity by 2027. That would be enough to power a third of all residential homes in the state.
On Wednesday, that effort took a major step forward as the State of Massachusetts, after holding an auction, selected a group made up of a Danish investment firm and a Spanish utility to erect giant turbines on the ocean bottom, beginning about 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard. This initial project will generate 800 megawatts of electricity, roughly enough to power a half a million homes. At the same time, Rhode Island announced it would award a 400-megawatt offshore wind project to another bidder in the auction.
The groups must now work out the details of their contracts with the states’ utilities.
‘We see this not just as a project but as the beginning of an industry,’ Lars Thaaning Pedersen, the chief executive of Vineyard Wind, which was awarded the Massachusetts contract, said in an interview.
Offshore wind farms have increasingly become mainstream sources of power in Northern Europe, and are fast becoming among the cheapest sources of electricity in countries like Britain and Germany. Those power sources in those two countries already account for more than 12 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity.
But the United States has largely not followed that lead, with just one relatively small offshore wind farm built off the coast of Rhode Island. Currently, the entire country’s offshore wind capacity is just 30 megawatts.
‘We know in light of Northern Europe’s experience with offshore wind that many U.S. ports will benefit from the arrival of the industry here,’ Jon Mitchell, the New Bedford mayor, said.from offshore operators. ‘As long as there are boats that will be here,’ he said, ‘it is business for us.’…”
Full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/23/business/energy-environment/offshore-wind-massachusetts.html
ok, so maybe you all will throw rotten eggs at me…
–But, am not a fan.
—ugly protuberance on the landscape
—high pitched noises from operation which greatly bother many folks and animals
—many birds die hitting them
—and more
And then…
–they use scads of rare earth metals which are mined under abhorrent/slave like conditions, often by children
((
Estimates of the exact amount of rare earth minerals in wind turbines vary, but in any case the numbers are staggering. According to the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences, a 2 megawatt (MW) wind turbine contains about 800 pounds of neodymium and 130 pounds of dysprosium"
-etc etc
Better than oil or coal.