NJ Wind Farm Approved

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Ryban

This mostly seems like good news to me. Other than the navigational hazard, what are reasons people are unhappy about this?

The construction of dozens of wind turbines off the coast of Nantucket threatens the survival of a dwindling number of endangered Northern Atlantic right whales that inhabit the waters, a group of residents on the affluent resort island in Massachusetts argue in a federal lawsuit filed*, filed August 25, 2021.
More about ➥ https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/...-right-whales/

* ACK RESIDENTS AGAINST TURBINES; and VALLORIE OLIVER,
Plaintiffs,
v.
U.S. BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT; NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION; NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE; et al
Defendants

➥ https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...8-24-21%29.pdf

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Ryban

Wind turbines do kill birds, and there is research being done to mitigate this...
... The way I see it, wind turbines are not a perfect solution, but are better than the alternative of continuing with the way things are, ...

Indeed [to all you said]!

Other power generation methods likely kill far more birds [& others, including humans], than wind farms do.

eg:“The avian benefits of wind energy: A 2009 update” ~ by Benjamin K. Sovacool
➥ https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...857?via%3Dihub

[RaymondR]

The biggest reliability failure of these devices which has occurred in Australia was because the wind blew too hard.

[deblen]

Let's not do anything-just let the birds,whales & animals die off fro polution & warming.
Then we will have the world for ourselves.....

[Chotu]

Honestly, my gripe is that I don’t understand why we have to ruin everything. Can’t we leave some things untouched?

We ruined the air. We ruined the night sky with starlink. We ruined the oceans with these turbines.

About the only thing we haven’t ruined is the moon. And I’m sure that’s next on the list. It will probably have ads on it shortly

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

The biggest reliability failure of these devices which has occurred in Australia was because the wind blew too hard.

Indeed.
Hurricanes, typhoons and tropical cyclones can be dangerous, especially to tall structures, like wind turbines; which should be able to withstand lesser winds.

When wind speeds surpass a modern utility-scale turbine’s “rated wind speed”, the blades begin to feather. When the anemometer registers “cut-out” wind speeds [varies by turbine, but often higher than 55 mph], it triggers the wind turbine to automatically shut off.
In some instances, although not common, the blades can even be locked down, to ride out severe gusts.
Once the anemometer measures speeds at or below the turbine’s cut-out speed (often 55 mph), the blades unfeather, and resume normal operation, providing renewable energy back to the grid.
Despite this shut off, the yaw drive, located in the wind turbine’s nacelle, continuously points the rotor into the wind, even as weather patterns shift.

When winter storm ‘Stella’ [nor'easter] rolled through, in March of 2017, all five turbines, at Rhode Island’s ‘Block Island Wind Farm’, were operating at full capacity [30 megawatts], except for a brief window of several hours, when wind speeds exceeded 55 mph. The wind farm sustained wind speeds higher than 70 mph, during the automatic shutdown, and successfully powered back up, after the winds diminished.

Notably, a wind turbine, owned by the state, at at Salty Brine Beach, in Narragansett R.I. did, however, succumb to the winds during the storm.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Honestly, my gripe is that I don’t understand why we have to ruin everything. Can’t we leave some things untouched?

We ruined the air. We ruined the night sky with starlink. We ruined the oceans with these turbines.

About the only thing we haven’t ruined is the moon. And I’m sure that’s next on the list. It will probably have ads on it shortly

Placement of wind turbines is a challenge. They work nicely (although with some end of life concerns), but they are pretty damn big, so it's hard to keep them out of the way. Around here, they actually look surprisingly nice spinning along on some of the fairly empty hillsides. Out in the ocean is probably a good spot for some nice, steady wind, but there's definitely a challenge of "where do we put these that they aren't directly in the way of where people want to go?"

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

Placement of wind turbines is a challenge. They work nicely (although with some end of life concerns), but they are pretty damn big, so it's hard to keep them out of the way. Around here, they actually look surprisingly nice spinning along on some of the fairly empty hillsides. Out in the ocean is probably a good spot for some nice, steady wind, but there's definitely a challenge of "where do we put these that they aren't directly in the way of where people want to go?"

You know, I really don’t mind them on land. I remember going through Kansas or some thing I think? And it was just the most enormous wind farms all over the place.

See, my gripe is we have already wrecked the land. We already have made our mark. It’s not natural and in its pristine condition. Might as well put wind turbines up all over the place on land. If people want that. I still think solar on every roof would be a smarter thing to do, but sure. Pur the turbines wherever.

However the ocean is the one last place we have that doesn’t have a lot of human marking all over it. It’s fairly pure still. It would be very unfortunate to ruin that as well as we have ruined everything else.

[TrentePieds]

Thot that you might like to see this. Been there for forty years or more. Right in a heavy traffic area off Copenhagen. A convention has grown among navigators that you simply go around 'em. We Sunday sailors could of course cut between 'em if our draft isn't too great.

Built by a cooperative rather than a "for Profit" corporation, IIRC. But then, you know what Danes can be like :-)!

TrentePieds

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Honestly, my gripe is that I don’t understand why we have to ruin everything. Can’t we leave some things untouched?

I think this is a legitimate gripe. But let's think it through.

Short answer is, no, we can't. There are just too many of us. Just by being here, we impact (you could say ruin) everything.

Solution? Less people. Personally, I'm not willing to make the obvious sacrifice to contribute to that solution. So we have to look for better ways to, for example, generate electricity. As others have already pointed out, wind farms are among the better options.

I have no more difficulty avoiding them than lobster buoys. And they're actually kinda nice looking, if you can get over whatever preconceived notions you might bring.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

I think this is a legitimate gripe. But let's think it through.

Short answer is, no, we can't. There are just too many of us. Just by being here, we impact (you could say ruin) everything.

Solution? Less people. Personally, I'm not willing to make the obvious sacrifice to contribute to that solution. So we have to look for better ways to, for example, generate electricity. As others have already pointed out, wind farms are among the better options.

I have no more difficulty avoiding them than lobster buoys. And they're actually kinda nice looking, if you can get over whatever preconceived notions you might bring.

Well, at least things do seem to be self regulating actually. Many nations are in population decline right now. People don’t want to have kids anymore. Naturally. Who would have thought our species had that kind of regulation? Luckily it appears we do.

[ABJ87]

Originally Posted by LarryDW

Wonderful, another pain in the ass hazard when transiting the NJ coast.

Look where it is. Cape May to NYC your likely inside of it. Cape May to Block your outside of it.

Looks positioned to avoid most marine traffic.

[ABJ87]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Ugh. Gross.

It’s off Atlantic City NJ, can’t look any worse.

[Greatest Lakes]

Each one of these will also contain significant amounts of oil and grease, some of which will leak into the water from each unit. These things may never pay for themselves either.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Greatest Lakes

Each one of these will also contain significant amounts of oil and grease, some of which will leak into the water from each unit. These things may never pay for themselves either.

A lot of arguments like these seem disingenuous to me. People suddenly get all these concerns about environmental, economic or cultural issues which they never cared about before, when someone wants to build something in their neighborhood (or waters.)

But let's look at these points objectively. Do you think other means of generating electricity use no lubricants? How about your own boat? Every shoreside dock, pier, warehouse, factory or home? With all the near-coastal infrastructure, why would anyone single out these particular structures?

Is transporting oil in large tankers to fuel power plants preferable?

As for the economic argument, companies are vying to site these things. Permits are auctioned off to the highest bidder. Investors are flocking to fund these projects. Large utilities (known for being overly conservative) are staking their futures on technologies like these.

I'm no economist, but I think it's safe to say there's money to be made.