Delaware may become home to the largest wind power plant in the United States. A wind energy developer, Bluewater Wind, hopes to build a 600-megawatt wind park in the waters just off Delaware’s coast. The wind park would power 130,000 homes for over 20 years, at price cheaper than coal or gas, according to Bluewater Wind’s founder Peter Mandelstam. His company has already built a wind farm in Montana that provides power to more than 45,000 homes.
The offshore wind project in Delaware may have good chance of becoming a reality, because, as Salon reports:
…Delaware lawmakers last year declared they needed a brand-new source of power. Deregulation had led to a 59 percent power rate increase, and they wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen again so soon. So last April, Delaware’s legislators called for competitive bids for a new, long-term contract with the state’s utility, Delmarva. Four state agencies are expected by June 15 to choose between Mandelstam’s wind-turbine project and competing bids from coal and gas.
Also, polls show that offshore wind is overwhelmingly popular in Delaware. The state was graded a “F” for air pollution by the American Lung Association.
Still, Bluewater Wind faces challenges in convincing Delaware officials with close ties to the coal and gas industries.
See more info in the Salon article.
How much does it cost? That is, whats the total cost? R & D, manufacture, interest on financing, conventional power plant for back-up, down time, grid interruptions, inversion station, maintenence, hook-up and access. And what about Government subsidies and credits that are inevietably expected to be paid up by the taxpayer/consumer? How long will it be in operation before it becomes obsolete and out-dated like cars, computers, and phones? How do they know the manufacturers will still be around? Look what happened to General Electric. It is likely these old already windmills will go the way of propeller aircraft soon enough to make way for ‘True-Turbines’ that will be able to produce power from wind more cost effectively. Speculative investment in Propeller Tower Wind farms is like betting on the Spruce Goose up against a Boeing 747. It is simple science. As soon as all the investments are locked in, they’ll go to vertical axis big ball multi-finned turbines cause they’ll be cheaper and more reliable, noiseless and encagable, and since rotation WITH the wind flow dictates a vertical axis design that can surround a dyno/generator, in the wind or under the water, what happens to all the Propeller farm investors? They get stuck paying and paying to try to make their newer, bigger, better Propellers work to try to break even. Gambling at high stakes to chase the wind is a speculative investment at best, but simple wind dynamics is sure to go WITH the flow and as soon as it does, what becomes of giant ‘Propellers on Sticks?’