The Great Lakes: contender for first U.S. offshore wind farm?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The nation’s first offshore wind farm will likely rise from the salty surface of the Atlantic Ocean. But a project in the Midwest is hoping to beat the East Coast to it.

For all parties, the race to be first is more like a marathon. Its hurdles include years of public dissent, technological challenges, and deep funding. Still Freshwater Wind tells NPR they are in it to win it. Their finish line is Lake Erie, about 7 miles northwest of the Cleveland Browns Stadium.

The plan is to start slow, with five 4-megawatt turbines from General Electric. The farm will be small but not the turbines, and not the price. At $20 million each, they will stand more than 200 feet tall, with blades stretching 150 feet. Lake Erie Energy Development Corp (LEEDCo), an Ohio non-profit promoting offshore wind, wants to see 1,000 megawatts of capacity in Lake Erie by 2020. This could potentially produce enough power for 200,000 homes.

Over on the north side of the lakes, the Ontario government has benched its immediate plans for turbines on Lake Ontario in February. So far, Sweden leads the world in freshwater wind farms, but only by one. Dynawind’s 10 turbines whir over 330-foot waters in Lake Vänern. This 30-megawatt wind farm just went commercial last May, and how it performs (economically and environmentally) could guide the others trailing behind them.

Freshwater Wind, for instance, is looking into how a wind farm and a Lake Erie winter mix. How the turbines’ bases handle the lake’s ice floes are the concern—something the Atlantic’s seafaring turbines wouldn’t encounter. Disrupted scenic views and water depths are also challenges that Great Lake projects face, and again, funding.

Lorry Wagner, head of LEEDCo, tells NPR:

We know we have to get [the cost] down to approximately half of what it is today and that’s an immense challenge; we don’t have any illusions about how difficult this is going to be.

And they better hurry up. Despite Cape Wind’s recent setback of the DOE tabling its application for loan guarantees, the controversial Nantucket wind farm remains in the running. Siemens told Bloomberg on Tuesday that the company is willing to finance the whole project.

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/the-great-lakes-contender-for-first-us-offshore-wind-farm/7260

[Zero Sum 305]

Hoping we get one off of Chicago too. It really does get windy here.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

We should build them on the Canadian side so we won't have to look at them.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

We should build them on the Canadian side so we won't have to look at them.

Should cut down on those pesky Canada geese that seem to hang around all year amd forgot how to migrate. Maybe some decoys around the base of the wind turbines.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Should cut down on those pesky Canada geese that seem to hang around all year amd forgot how to migrate. Maybe some decoys around the base of the wind turbines.

Any Canadian geese that don't migrate and stay in the US year round should have their visas revoked and be deported without further ado. We have enough illegal people let alone geese.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

JUMP!POOR LIL GUY!

Edited June 24, 2011 by Unions suck

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Where ya been Marc?

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Keeepin track of Steves.................................. wind farm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dN8woBkTpU&feature=fvst

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

POOR LIL MAN! Im just a KID!

[lostinblue 1,989]

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/33383

$200M wind farm fails in damp cold

Windmills freeze under heavy ice

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- News on the Net Wednesday, February 16, 2011

By Greg Weston, Telegraph-Journal

A $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a potential supply of renewable energy for NB Power.

The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, located 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, N.B. has been completely shut down for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades.

GDF SUEZ Energy, the company that owns and operates the site, is working to return the windmills to working order, a spokeswoman says.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4f3_1296720059

UK windmills freeze, use evil carbon energy to re-heat

Deep Freeze and the Windmills Failed to Turn

by British National Party on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 4:47am

By John Bean — The ever expanding EU regulations will cost the British taxpayer at least £184billion over the next 10 years (this is in addition to our £6.4billion annual net contribution).

According to ‘Europe Open’ the second most costly regulation is the Climate Change Act which will soon add £130 to £200 a year to the annual energy bill for a typical UK family. Much of this is going into the installation of costly windmills as a power source.

None of the above costs will be reduced, let alone eliminated, by the LibLabCon parties despite the enormous black hole of national debt which has to be tackled by any incoming new government – and if it is headed by Cameron it will also continue with an increased total overseas aid programme costing in excess of £10billion.

The effectiveness of what the old discredited parties are offering to tackle the gigantic debt that their globalist, multiculturally-obsessed policies produced can be equated with the value of the power generated by our expensive national array of windmills. For ten days of this winter’s deep freeze when temperatures were at their lowest, not one windmill blade turned from the Suffolk coast to the Scottish highlands.

The problem was that when a high pressure area settles over Britain in the winter it gives two weather effects. Very cold temperatures and low wind speeds. And as they were below 7.5 mph, the windmills did not work.

Yet Brown – fully backed by the evergreen Cameronite Tories and the politically pointless Lib Dems - has committed us to a £200 billion dash for wind. Power companies have been awarded contracts to build 6,400 wind turbines off the British coast. Not one turbine has been built in Britain so far – they are either imported from Germany or Denmark. As for the much-heralded “extra British jobs” this will bring, the only major source will be the redundant fishermen whose jobs have been taken by the French and Spanish and for the future can crew the service boats for the offshore wind farms.

If all these proposed 6,400 wind turbines were installed by 2020, which at present engineering capabilities is an impossible target, then as long as the wind blew at the right speed the peak capacity would provide 25 per cent of our power needs. The variability of the wind being what it is means that there must always be a conventional power source back-up, whether it be coal, gas, oil or nuclear power.

But the EU has already said that we must close our coal-fired power stations in six years and that they will not give exception to the proposed clean coal operated power stations. Led by the French and German owned companies, the UK power companies have now said they will require £100billion investment to build a “super-grid” connected to Europe to guarantee a steady power supply.

Having led the way five years ago in pointing out that we had reached “peak oil”, the BNP supports development of alternative energy sources, which includes wave power, nuclear power, solar energy panels and, as we still have millions of tonnes of coal deposits, effective clean-coal operated power stations.

We recognise that there is a definite place for small wind turbines which have been proven as an effective back-up source for power generation for individual homes, farms and small manufacturing units. But it is the fact that they will always need back-up that makes them a financial disaster on the mass scale envisaged by the LibLabCon.

Recommended reading: The Wind Farm Scam by John Etherington.

Dr Etherington argues that wind turbines cannot generate enough energy to reduce global CO2 levels to a meaningful degree; what’s more wind power is by nature intermittent and cannot generate a steady output, necessitating back-up coal and gas power plants that significantly negate the saving of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the inefficacy of wind power there are ecological drawbacks, including damage to habitats, wildlife and the far-from-insignificant aesthetic drawback of the assault upon natural beauty and the pristine landscape, which wind turbines entail. He argues that wind power has been, and is being, excessively financed at the cost of consumers who have not been consulted, nor informed that this effective subsidy is being paid from their bills to support an industry that cannot be cost efficient or, ultimately, favour the cause it purports to support. 300 pages.Paperback. £9.99

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[Vi-Jay 218]

Ooooops.