First US Offshore Wind Power Park In Delaware 363
Dekortage writes "Offshore wind power company Bluewater Wind has announced an agreement to build America's first offshore wind turbine park off the coast of Delaware. 'Each turbine [will sit on] a pole about 250 feet above the waterline... the units are to be constructed to withstand hurricane-force winds. From the shore, the park will be visible only on clear winter days, and the turbines will be nearly invisible during summer months when Rehoboth Beach fills with vacationers. Each blade on the three-blade rotor is to be 150 feet long.' The wind farm will power 50,000 homes in Delaware, using about half of its capacity."
The conspiracy continues... (Score:5, Funny)
The wind farm will power 50,000 homes in Delaware
Lies. There are no homes in Delaware. Ask yourself, do you know anyone from Delaware?
I thought not.
Delaware is a plot between the banking industry and the DuPonts to get a few free Senators. Don't believe the lies.
Don't forget... (Score:5, Funny)
According to TFA there are also tourists.
But that only begs the question...who would go to Delaware for a vacation?
Re:Don't forget... (Score:5, Funny)
That alone makes Delaware worth a vist, if only to check out the brewery and then drink oneself into oblivion... to avoid having to face the reality that you did, indeed, got to Delaware for a vacation.
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120 Minutes IPA for the double win!
It's not so easy to get out here in AZ, pretty much gotta go to Papago where they also serve a beer appropriately called hops shortage which is the most hoppy IPA I've ever had!
nom nom nom nom
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I'd also note that aging it too long may not be a good thing... not sure what the temp conditions are, but that definitely shouldn't be on your desk -- for beer's sake, man, get it out of the light! I'm not big on aging IPAs too long, I think the caramels and the "burnt tire" flavor contradict the hoppiness... even
Re:Don't forget... (Score:5, Funny)
You all suck. I'm from Delaware and I'm the coolest guy you know.
I:
-have Real Genius AND Aliens memorized word for word ....and am alive to type about it.
-speak 23 languages, 3 of which are actually used on this planet
-actually have a job
-changed my underwear recently
-am voting for the Cylons this upcoming election
and
-fought Chuck Norris
Beat that.
Easy.... (Score:5, Funny)
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But that only begs the question...who would go to Delaware for a vacation?
I was stationed at Dover AFB from 1971-1973. If it's anything like it was then, I'd say absolutely NOBODY. Never before or since I was there have I ever been so bored, and I owned a motorcycle and a new 1869 Mustang.
The only good thing about that state was the fact that you only had to drive twenty minutes in any direction and you were in a different state.
The summary mentions Rehobeth, I went there. It's not in Delaware, Rehobeth is
Re:Don't forget... (Score:5, Funny)
> I was stationed at Dover AFB from 1971-1973 [...] I owned a motorcycle and a new 1869 Mustang.
After 102+ years, I don't think your horse was even alive, let alone "new".
Re:Don't forget... (Score:5, Funny)
Never before or since I was there have I ever been so bored, and I owned a motorcycle and a new 1869 Mustang.
That's your problem ... the Mustangs were a lot more fun once they started making them out of metal and putting gasoline engines into them!
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Re:Don't forget... (Score:5, Funny)
But that only begs the question...who would go to Delaware for a vacation?
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Have you met people from NJ?
If you're from North Jersey|Down the Shore|The Pine Barrens you won't think anyplace else is paradise... you'll think it's a different planet.
New Jersey is, in fact, a gateway to a different planet. This is why we get the weirdos. Show me a photo of a bunch of teenage NJ guidos, look me in the eye, and tell me with a straight face that they are not aliens. It can't be done.
Don't you think there's a
Re:Don't forget... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: The DelMarVa coast - It's warm enough, breezy enough, and wet enough to approximate a beach in summer. With cheap oil, it's a cheap automotive vacation. It attracts everyone east of Appalachia, south of Pennsylvania, and north of Richmond. Somehow it never became an icon - but it is the most popular vacation destination for several million people.
The only inhabitants that aren't supported by the corporate technicalities or the vacation industry are farmers.
Well, I've been to Delaware... (Score:3, Funny)
And I agree with everything you said.
Re:Well, I've been to Delaware... (Score:5, Informative)
Sorry for the hijack, but I'm going to attempt to insert some of the backstory here. See, I've lived in Delaware for the last 4 years (I'll gladly accept your pity)
Getting this deal done was a seemingly never ending political nightmare. Delmarva, the recently deregulated power company has fought against it tooth and nail. They seemed to have been under the impression that signing a 25 year power deal at a fixed price was a bad idea because you know, the price of oil might go down in the future...
Our governor was initially pushing a "clean coal" plant and against this deal. Blue Water Wind finally got the deal done due, in a large part, to netroots action pressuring the state legislature to force a deal down Delmarva's throat if they didn't start to negotiate in good faith. Delaware doesn't have ANY power generation, and buys all of it's power from other states. Delmarva wanted to continue to do this in spite of the rediculous congestion on our power infrastructure.
Tommywonk [blogspot.com] has been doing a fantastic job covering this issue, and if anyone wants anymore information I'd suggest they head there. (Surprisingly he doesn't have an update about the deal being inked yet)
Anyway, a warning to green power advocates, if this case is any indication, expect the entrenched interests to fight you every step of the way.
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Re:The conspiracy continues... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The conspiracy continues... (Score:5, Funny)
Haha, that just goes to show that Americans get an unfairly bad rap for being bad at geography. It turns out you Canadians know far less about American geography than we know about everyone else's geography!
Man, what a bunch of losers. I'm so going to mock you losers when I travel up to the oceanfront property I just bought in Alberta. I'm pretty sure my property is close to your national capital in Toronto too, so maybe I'll just have to go complain to your President about all the jokes. You'll be sorry you ever made fun of us!
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Delaware blows.
Re:The conspiracy continues... (Score:5, Funny)
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"Delaware, what state is that in?" is an actual question I've heard when mentioning it.
Well, it must have been a very early plot as it was the first state to sign the Constitution, and DuPont must have managed it from France, anticipating starting a gunpowder company a dozen years later.
Re:The conspiracy continues... (Score:5, Funny)
It's worse than that.
I had a bartender in Olean, New York confiscate my driver's license because, and I quote, "This is a fake, there is no such state as Delaware".
I went over the bar to get it back, the cops got called, it was getting pretty ugly until the cop got there (the cop told the bartender he was a retard).
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About one in ten US companies tries to connect you to their international shipping department when you call in an order...
I'm from Delaware! (Score:3, Informative)
I grew up there (and now live in Houston -- from a job I got on Slashdot no less).
Rehobeth is a beautiful area -- Delaware's #1 industry is tourism believe-it-or-not -- and it's just plain smart of them not to have them visible. Since the state is geologically a sand bar, the beaches are extremely nice and it's not a huge tourist hotspot like Florida or Jersey. They've got a decent sized park nearby (Cape Henlopen) where you can walk from forest to beach and take a dip if you want without all those pesky
Re:The conspiracy continues... (Score:4, Funny)
Everyone knows the main purpose of Delaware is actually to mark the credit card junk mail you can throw out without looking at it.
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Ocean view (Score:5, Interesting)
My family usually makes a trip every year to Bethany Beach, which is just a bit south of Rehoboth Beach. While I understand that it's better for most tourists if the turbines are not visible, it'd be cool if we could make it into a real-life science "field trip" for the kids sometime in the future.
Are there any plans for something like a small boat trip to see them up close? Maybe they could build a museum?
Re:Ocean view (Score:5, Interesting)
If you ever have the chance, go to Tarifa, Spain. It's one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
The beaches are nice and wide with fine sand. It makes for a perfect place to ride wind powered boards and of course kite surfing in the ocean.
All of this wind also makes for the perfect location for windfarms. The area around Tarifa is spotted with the turbines. Honestly that was my favorite view was to stand on the beach and watch all of turbines happily spinning up on the mountains producing nice clean energy.
If I had faster internet I'd find you some links for pics.
Re:Ocean view (Score:5, Insightful)
That's just stupid. They're _windmills_. It would be a massive waste of money to guard them in particular over and above normal coast guard duties. The effort required to inflict any damage of real consequence is massively prohibitive. And trust me, industrial espionage? Not a problem here.
Yep, they're novel to see if you haven't before. But they're truly just really big steel towers with 3 giant blades at the top. They're building lots in Ontario these days, and there is nothing keeping anybody from getting reasonably close to them whatsoever...there's no point.
I do find it weird that they'd be building these out in the Ocean so that people can't see them. They're not unsightly, and the increased initial cost and access costs for maintenance seems counter productive. Ah well. It's a step in the right direction anyways.
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I'd love for them to be close to my house because it would mean that the jets would have to fly further away. Windmill = quiet power. Jet = noise pollution.
Layne
Re:Ocean view (Score:4, Insightful)
People keep saying this, but I have to ask: how close do you have to stand to hear a modern wind turbine? Because I've stood at the fence of the Palm Springs wind farm (because my girlfriend insisted on taking photos of "the pretty windmills", so much for them being an eyesore too) and I couldn't hear a thing. And I wouldn't expect to hear much either, since they rotate about once every 3 seconds and have 3 blades. I don't hear very well in th 1Hz range.
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Does anybody understand why?
I don't know this for sure, but I did grow up on the ocean, and it is true that you can see further in the winter. I think it must have to do with evaporation off of the ocean - or possibly the mist that is created by the interaction between the warm humid air and the relatively cool water.
Besides California, the only place I've seen turbines is in Atlantic City, NJ... they power a sewage treatment plant right off to the left as you drive into town. They are just about the only interesting thing to see on
Re:Ocean view (Score:5, Informative)
A lot of wealthy and powerful people have bought homes in places that look out over the ocean, and they want to see the ocean, not a bunch of wind turbines or oil rigs or boat people. These people will say anything do stop the project, so if the area gets money from tourism, they say that tourists will stop coming. I agree with you, I don't see anything wrong with it. While I like looking at mountains or the ocean, if I was going to buy a home because of the view it would be a view of the Chicago skyline.
Also, the web site and the submission didn't mention why it would only be visible in winter. I thought that it would be visible in summer and not the winter, if anything. Does anybody understand why?
In the summer the humidity is higher and the air holds more water which reduces visibility. In the winter there is less humidity and visibility improves. It isn't stated in the summary, but it is implied that they are referring to clear, sunny days (which probably occur less often during the winter, but do still occur occasionally).
Cool; Now to expand to the great lakes (Score:5, Interesting)
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That's not a bad idea. though it might be too far from shore to benefit much from tidal, it s worth a look.
Increasing energy density is always good. At least until it goes boom.
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chicago has some days with a lot of wind but we get most of our power form Nuclear power.
Re:Cool; Now to expand to the great lakes (Score:5, Interesting)
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As far as the great lakes thing. Well maybe but I have no idea how fast the great lakes get deep. Deep water really runs up the cost.
Now the tide thing? probably not. Tidal systems are only practical in limited areas.
What I want to know is why is it almost invisable during the summer but not the winter? That seems very odd to me.
Re:Cool; Now to expand to the great lakes (Score:5, Informative)
Better visibility in the winter. All the water vapor freezes out of the air, basically.
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What's with building them in the water? That just increases cost, initially, and maintenance access. Just build them on the shore. We're building them all along the eastern shore of lake Huron in Ontario. (No, they don't detract from the actual shoreline...along the shore means anywhere from 500m to 10k+ inland)
Re:Cool; Now to expand to the great lakes (Score:5, Informative)
The winds are much, much, much, much more constant and also stronger off shore than on.
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Can you even run a wind turbine in 'reverse'?
I can't imagine that they're going to build wind turbines that can rotate into the wind.
A vertical axis wind turbine wouldn't have that problem.
Re:Cool; Now to expand to the great lakes (Score:5, Informative)
I can't imagine that they're going to build wind turbines that can rotate into the wind. A vertical axis wind turbine wouldn't have that problem.
Re:Cool; Now to expand to the great lakes (Score:5, Informative)
There is a motorized & computer-controlled 360 Degree bearing surface where the generator housing nacelle attaches to the vertical supporting column. The computers on-board each generator keep their own weather sensors for wind speed and direction as well as for power demands of the cluster of wind generators and they calculate how best to pitch their blades and what direction to point or if they need to feather their pitch because of an incoming storm, etc...
General Electric has a detailed drawing of one of their models here: http://www.gepower.com/prod_serv/products/wind_turbines/en/36mw/index.htm [gepower.com]
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Ah, good. (Score:4, Insightful)
I was afraid that the US would be losing out on the fundamentals of actually deploying such alternative energy setups. While I don't suspect wind power will be the answer to anything much more than maybe 5% of the world's power needs, we WILL need the engineering and technical know-how. Either we can get in on this stuff early and have our people (And by our people I am well aware some may be from other countries, bust most will stay in the US) gain the expertise and be home-grown, and thus, ultimately contribute to our society, culture or economy, or we would have to rely on experts from other countries almost exclusively, and end up being at the mercy of foreign nationals.
This would be an ideal opportunity to track the total cost of installation and management vs. the total cost for an equivalent 'traditional' power plant.
Feasible? (Score:4, Interesting)
Dela-Where?? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Dela-Where?? (Score:5, Funny)
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The state is called Delmarva [wikipedia.org]. However, IIMN Delmarva kicked Delaware out because he snored too loud, and both Mary and Virginia are lesbians.
Uncyclopedia doesn't mention Delmarva, but it does have an entry on Delaware [uncyclopedia.org].
1.6 billion for 50,000 homes? (Score:2)
This is insane. 1,600,000,000/50,000 is $32,000 per home. Even over 25 years that's $1280/home/year (and this doesn't include maintenance costs). If this is going to be a real solution costs have to come down enormously.
Re:1.6 billion for 50,000 homes? (Score:5, Insightful)
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that's close to what my electric bill is now
Why does everyone seem to think I was saying this would be the electric costs/month?
This isn't the cost to produce electricity, nor the cost it will sell at. It's JUST the cost to produce the plant divided over 25 years. Maintenance, transmission, and any overhead aren't included.
The cost of the actual electricity is a totally different number. The point here is that the construction costs alone are VERY high.
Re:1.6 billion for 50,000 homes? (Score:5, Insightful)
You have an excellent point...
However, electricity has tripled in the last 20 years from 5.3 to 16~ish cents. Assuming in the next 20 years, it does the same... then 1,280 would be roughly $430 adjusted for inflation- which will be a huge bargain.
Re:1.6 billion for 50,000 homes? (Score:5, Informative)
Furthermore, this is only half the capacity. In theory they can sell their surplus to other utility companies.
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$1.6 billion is the cost to build it. There will need to be a fleet of service vessels and several full-time employees (I would guess around 50) to service and provide administrative functions for the project. Salaries, benefits, fuel (think diesel for service ships), and parts should easily add tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars per year in operating costs.
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The 50,000 homes figure is for the less than 50% of capacity which Delmarva Power has contracted to buy. "The rest would be sold to other customers."
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So you should basicly add the inflationary process to your caculations,
which is citing wikipedia[1] 3.9 %.
On the other hand the price for primary energy sources like nuclear fuel, natural gas and
most important coal, will unlikely decrease, they will rise,
And one word to the insane costs, when nuclear power plants are built the prices are nearly
the same, nuclear powerplants (as far as
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Re:1.6 billion for 50,000 homes? (Score:5, Informative)
Technical Details (Score:5, Informative)
Technical data here [udel.edu]...
Bluewater Wind agrees to build a 150 turbine, 450MW wind project 12-13 miles off of Rehoboth Beach. Delmarva Power agrees to buy up to 300MW at any one time. The cost to Delmarva ratepayers for energy and capacity will be 10.56 cents/kWh in 2007 dollars. Delmarva is also purchasing Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) associated with its energy purchases.
So evidently these are 150 x 3MW turbines. Generally turbines of this class have a blade space diameter of 100m.
It is interesting to note that while Delaware has no nuclear reactors, it is across the river from the Salem [nrc.gov] dual 1.1 MWe PWRs and the co-located Hope Creek [nrc.gov] 1.0 MWe BWR in New Jersey, for a total of 3.2 MWe of nuclear in the neighborhood.
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er from the Salem [nrc.gov] dual 1.1 MWe PWRs and the co-located Hope Creek [nrc.gov] 1.0 MWe BWR in New Jersey, for a total of 3.2 MWe of nuclear in the neighborhood.
Correction: 3.2 GWe, not MWe.
Why make them hard to see? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd actually like the reminder that we are doing something like this. I can already see coal-fired power plants from the freeway, why is it a positive thing that something like this, which doesn't belch black smoke, can only been seen? You don't want the tourists to know that you're for a cleaner environment?
Re:Why make them hard to see? (Score:5, Insightful)
For some reason people like to endlessly bitch that windmills are "eyesores", as if this in and of itself is reason not to use them. They don't look unsightly to me.
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Sorry to just say the old AOLler "me too", but I think windmills are beautiful. Absolutely breathtaking.
As far as I'm concerned, the more, the merrier.
Beach????? (Score:2, Funny)
The two big questions.... (Score:5, Interesting)
They're not answered anywhere on the company's website or in the article...
The answers to these questions are important when determining whether this project is worthy of support or not:
Who is paying to build the windfarm?
Who gets to keep the profit from the windfarm?
For the windfarm they wanted to build around here, the answers were "me" (through tax dollars), and "not me" (as in some private corporation got to keep the profit, even though they didn't pay for the initial investment). Luckily a sufficient number of people were able to see that they were getting screwed through the veil of "environmental responsibility" in order to get the project canceled.
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Who is paying to build the windfarm?
Who gets to keep the profit from the windfarm?
I'm not sure of the answer to these questions and I live close enough to the region to have heard the smear campaign Delmarva Power (the local power monopoly) was running against Bluewater on the radio. Their radio ad went into how it would cost customer's so much more money, yadda, yadda, FUD, blah, blah, FUD. From my limited knowledge on it, I believe Delmarva had a more lucrative deal in the works with some onshore wind farms and my guess is that Delmarva viewed Bluewater as being a real threat to their
Re:The two big questions.... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The two big questions.... (Score:5, Insightful)
"By your logic, we shouldn't get tax cuts for hybrid cars, or tax cuts and government rebates on solar cells in our homes, because in the end our tax dollars are paying for it..."
Don't know about the OP's logic, but by my logic you are absolutely correct. Why should you get to hold a fricken gun to my head (courtesy of the IRS) to pay for your Prius? If you want to buyt a Prius, or install solar cells on your roof, fine - and more power to you. But when you use the government to steal money from others to pay for it, well it is time for you to STFU and pay for the real costs of your toys.
You know the way everyone is supposed to pay for the real costs of using oil etc. - or does such blatant hypocrisy just not register?
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...install solar cells on your roof, fine - and more power to you...
Comedy's finest.
Re:The two big questions.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason to offer rebates to prius buyers is simple. The market doesn't charge other car buyers for the pollution and other real or perceived negative effects of their choice vehicle. These negative effects are shared amongst the populace at large; the costs savings and benefits of a more polluting vehicle are enjoyed by one person alone yet everybody ends up somewhat worse off (by living with poorer air quality etc). So the government is taking a look at prius buyers and saying "Hey, your vehicle choice doesn't result is as many negatives so here is a credit."
Without such credits and rebates their would be no financial incentive not to pollute and generally create a mess of the environment as the market is unable to capture and charge you for these costs.
West Coast Jealousy (Score:2, Funny)
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Not secure against NIMBY attacks! (Score:4, Funny)
This was a huge political battle... (Score:5, Informative)
I actually live in Delaware, and for those fools who aren't in the know, Delaware has some of the lowest property taxes in the area, good rail transit, and good gun laws.
Now, the windmill battle in Delaware was an EPIC battle. On one side, you had the utility that wanted to build a gas turbine, and on the other side, you had the windmill people.
The backdrop is that the utility already doubled rates because of rising fuel prices, and the state was already importing a great deal of energy at spot (read high) prices. To work around this, the state needed its own generation.
Now, the utility wanted to build a new gas turbine facility, because the capital costs were pretty cheap and they had enterprise experience with both operating and constructing them. The windmill people wanted a windmill farm, and, they probably would have lost on merits of costs, because the windmills are nearly twice as expensive as a cheap gas turbine station. However, I think what's happened is that, between everyone being so spooked by the perpetually rising fuel costs, and, a newly enacted state sustainability law, they more or less had to build the wind mill.
It will be cool if it works, but I'm cynically betting on rolling blackouts on calm, hot summer days.
Re:This was a huge political battle... (Score:5, Informative)
i'll take your bet.
Electricity is a grid of multiple sources, kept in tight balance at several geographic levels. The output of all of them fluctuate constantly, as does use.
When there's not enough wind, it'll come from somewhere else. The concept is to build a diverse portfolio of sources so that we're not as affected by situations in any one.
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Europe gets like 20% of its power from wind, and doesn't have these kind of issues.
The wind farm will be on the coast, and when the most energy is used (summer and winter), the ocean temp is conveniently the most different from the land. Plus it is windy 250' above the ocean several miles off the coast a lot more often than it is standing on land.
How many times have you been to the ocean when there are no waves (which are caused by wind out at sea), or it isn't windy?
Re:This was a huge political battle... (Score:5, Informative)
That is sort of odd, considering that gas turbines and wind power fill two separate niches.
Wind power provides good support to base-load power, while gas turbines can fill demands during "peak" periods.
Also, there are fairly extensive atmospheric/climatic studies performed before sites are selected for wind farms. Given the height of the turbines, it's probably a pretty safe bet that there'll be some wind virtually all the time.
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Yes, it just doesn't need to build a second gas turbine, which was the alternative to building these windmills. They can't throw out the original one, but that was never the plan. The idea was always one gas turbine + wind farm would be better than two gas turbines.
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And the bonus is that in 10 years time, the wind turbines will have broken even and, barring maintenance costs, will be producing very cheap electricity.
Whilst the gas turbine would be paying over the odds for Russian natural gas.
Short termers and NIMBYs are ruining the environment. Wind turbines are a good investment.
Ah... home! (Score:2, Interesting)
Living in Delaware definitely has its perks. Blue crabs, the beaches, pumpkin' chunkin' festivals [wikipedia.org], scrapple [wikipedia.org] (mmm!). Also, fans of craft beer will note that Dogfish Head [dogfish.com] is brewed there too.
[1] http://www.bluewaterwind.com/de_overview.htm [bluewaterwind.com]
[2] http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/10000.html [census.gov]
They changed the state motto (Score:4, Funny)
From "Small Wonder" to "Don't Blink". But for the hundreds of State Troopers on I-95 making up the State's entire budget, you could drive through Delaware in about 6 minutes.
Politics of Wind Power (Score:5, Insightful)
USA needs to be going full bore with wind power. So what if it only contributes a fraction of the power we need. Any additional source of power is good and worth it if the energy return is positive. Off-shore wind power strikes me as a great alternative to the concerns regarding land-based wind power. Concerns such as overcoming NIMBY resistance, ugly-ling up the landscape, discouraging tourism, etc.
So, what's the deal with the politiking? When you face a problem, you attack that problem on all flanks, which for this problem means investing in all forms of safe, eco-friendly energy. Sometimes that means legislating enticing incentives and direct funding by the government for solutions which cannot immediately generate profits, but would over time if initially invested.
F the politics.
Delaware (Score:3, Insightful)
Delaware, first to ratificate the constitution, first to have an US offshore wind power park.
What a briljant state!
Obligatory wind map... (Score:5, Informative)
It's interesting to note that most of the wind maps agree that offshore is the best place to stick a wind turbine. If you've ever stood by the ocean, there's always a stiff sea breeze coming from the ocean onto the land.
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The hub is 250 feet up.
The blades are 150 feet long.
Therefore the tip of the blades will be 150 feet from the hub...At the low point it will be 100 feet above the water. At the high point it will be 400 feet above the water.
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If the blade is attached 250 ft up, and is 150 ft long....
250 - 150 = 100...
There should be 100 ft between the blade and the water. What does the diameter have to do with anything?
Re:Here it comes... (Score:4, Insightful)
The wind farm will be several miles out from the beach, so on a non-hazy day you will be able to make out a few toothpicks sticking up out of the water. Big deal, there are more ugly planes (with annoying banners!) and boats that go by all the time that look much bigger.
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Plus, they'd have to have their captain steer around them while out on their yachts.
Layne
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I wonder if people bitched so much back when the Coast Guard was going around putting up lighthouses everywhere.
Now, some of the most expensive property on Cape Ann, MA is the coastline where the lighthouses are visible. They're considered picturesque; hell, more than that, they're 'romantic seacoast' to the point of being cliched.
We just need the political will to ram the wind-power projects through, and in a few years they'll just be another part of the landscape. A few generations, and people will be p
Re:Environmental Impact (Score:4, Informative)
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Is that why they banned sail ships and replaced them with steam ships?
Re:Nuclear power? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Indeed! (Score:3, Interesting)
Hear hear!
I've often wondered what the objection is as well. --Having seen acres of white windmills, I can honestly say I was filled with pride at the sight. They were actually quite beautiful from an aesthetic standpoint. Without making any judgments about other forms of power generation, compare the simple aesthetics of wind power to the gray cooling towers associated with nuclear power, or the toxic smokestacks from coal burning plants.
I think the complaints are almost more grudging responses to the i