How many of those offshore windmills would survive a hurricane? Imagine if a Cat5 hurricane swept up the coast taking out potentially hundreds of windmills. We would have catastrophic blackouts covering much of the country
The worst hurricane on record for NYC was a Cat3 in 1938.
The design survival limit for current wind turbines is claimed to be Cat3.
A fun topic!
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/offshore-wind-turbines-cant-handle-toughest-hurricanes
recommended she use a computer simulation driven by hurricane data from the last 15 years. Bryan used this high-resolution model to recreate the worst of the worst — a category-5 hurricane eyewall, where winds can exceed 220 miles per hour — to see how wind turbines would hold up. The team also investigated how wind characteristics, such as changes in direction and turbulence, might affect turbines.
Researchers found the extreme wind speeds they modeled would cause structural damage to wind turbines and possible failure of turbine parts. When wind speeds from typhoon Usagi in southern China exceeded turbine specifications in 2013, for instance, blades bent and towers toppled over.