A Race to Reap Energy From the Ocean Breezes

New York Times ^ | April 2, 2010 | Sindya N. Bhanoo

[reaganaut1]

As New Englanders await a decision in Massachusetts on a bitterly contested proposal to build the nation’s first offshore wind farm, the State of Rhode Island is forging ahead with its own project in the hope of outpacing — and upstaging — its neighbor.

Crucial to its strategy is dispelling worries that economics will trump the environment, or the broader public good.

Instead of having a private developer dominate the research on potential sites, as Massachusetts has, Rhode Island embarked on a three-year scientific study, to be completed in August, of all waters within 30 miles of its coast. It has spent more than $8 million on research into bird migration patterns, wildlife habitats, fish distribution, fishermen’s needs [...].

Its goal has been to head off the hurdles that have been in the way of the Massachusetts project, which has pitted coastal Indian tribes, business interest and homeowners against the developer, Cape Wind, and proponents of alternative energy. Frustrated by the failure of the two sides to broker an agreement, the Obama administration’s interior secretary, Ken Salazar, has promised to determine the fate of the project on his own this month. (On Friday a federal historic panel sent Mr. Salazar its recommendation that the government reject the Cape Wind Project.)

...

Massachusetts counters that it is much further ahead. “We’ve been through all the state permits and we’re awaiting the final permits,” Ian Bowles, the state’s secretary of energy and environment, said in a recent interview.

Rhode Island has not secured permits, but it has trumpeted what Cape Wind so far lacks: a “power purchase” agreement with a utility company to buy what a farm generates. Yet on Wednesday, the state’s utility commission rejected that pact, which involved the proposed farm off Block Island, as too costly.

[reaganaut1]

The Times reporter is so excited about the horse-race between MA and RI and enthralled by green power that she never bothers to mention the COST of the electricity that may be generated, but she does provide a link to a story about the rejection of the Block Island wind farm. Reading that story, I see that it was rejected because it would almost double the price of electricity:

"In the end, commissioners said they simply could not swallow the deal’s estimated above-market costs of $25 million a year.

Deepwater would have charged National Grid 24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2013, the first year of the contract. Prices would increase 3.5 percent per year after that. (The ultimate retail price paid by customers would have been higher.) Under state law, National Grid also would have received a bonus for buying renewable energy.

The retail price of electricity for a home in Rhode Island currently is about 13 cents per kilowatt-hour.

“What we are determining is the will of Rhode Island, the political will of Rhode Island, to … pay substantially above-market prices,” said Commissioner Paul J. Roberti, the most outspoken of the three."

[rarestia]

I’m really confused. All of this garbage has brought the EU to its knees. “Green” initiatives have done nothing but force nations to cut their work forces and shutter factories. How the hell are we supposed to manufacture goods? Have we gone from agrarian to industrial to consumption-only? Someone somewhere has to be belching carbon into the air. Why are the ChiComms allowed to, but America has to sit back and be throttled by administrative red tape and bureaucratic bumbling?

[deaconjim]

It is amazing how much time is wasted on wind farms at sea when there is so much energy available from the sea itself.

[Ole Okie]

Why are the ChiComms allowed to, but America has to sit back and be throttled by administrative red tape and bureaucratic bumbling?

Principally because we are ruled by lawyers who have only a rudimentary knowledge of science (if that) and can be snowed by any latest junk science fad. They reason, "How could "An Inconvenient Truth" winning Oscars and Nobel prizes not be true?"

The ruling class in this country has no knowledge filters to filter out such abominations as "Catastrophic Global Warming". If 2500 'scientists' are for it, who then can be against it, they reason.

Ergo, the United States, Gulliver if you will, is bound head to toe by the Lilliputians who proclaim themselves "advocates" for every stupid cause.

So we undeservedly get chains bound about us such as "Cap and Tax" which will eventually shut down the American economic engine.

England seems to be facing a 2020 fiasco in which many coal and gas power plants will be shut down, and their energy needs partially taken by windmills offshore. Some of the Brits are beginning to panic that the windmills just aren't going to get the job done.

We might watch and learn, but that's just too much to ask from Obama, Reid and Pelosi.