Offshore wind power park to energize Delaware homes
By Darren Murph 
posted June 24th 2008 12:02PM
posted June 24th 2008 12:02PM
posted June 24th 2008 12:02PM
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That area is typically pretty windy so it's a good area for them to plop it down. It's actually near where I go surf fishing so it'd probably become a common sight for me. They just need to figure out some way to get some energy out of the tidal power in the Indian River inlet...
Honestly i don't see a problem paying a premium for energy that benefits something other than everyone's wallet. If this will save the damage to air quality, and other environmental concerns i don't have a problem with it. In actuality if you factor in the cost of increase health expenses, a worsening climate condition, pain at the hands of foreign interests (ie Oil).. this might be a bargain basement solution ... Let them get as close to price competitive as they can but just because its not the walmart of energy doesn't make this a much less appealing solution.
Hurricane damage can be somewhat mitigated with the tech in the turbine. They have safe guards to spinning to fast (brakes et al). Though I imagine they could still get damaged.
Putting them on cars .. umm no . .but imagine charging your car with the energy supplied by this system... its effectively the same thing ... so maybe .. putting them on cars ... umm yes (sort of)
All in all i applaud the effort .. Our energy and environment future lies with tech like this in concert with other tech solutions .. I hope we can all start to look beyond just simply how much it 'costs' in monetary terms. We still have a chance to retain and strengthen our leadership role in the world. After all we (US) do still produce more energy from wind, in absolute terms, than any country on the planet.
-sun
"In actuality if you factor in the cost of increase health expenses, a worsening climate condition, pain at the hands of foreign interests (ie Oil).. this might be a bargain basement solution ..."
Thank you! This is exactly why we're in the effed up situation with oil we're in right now. Capitalism in conjunction with short-term thinking on the parts of corporations and governments have landed us in an global energy crisis. Oil can increase in price overnight - alternative energy solutions cannot be developed and produced in the same time span.
Dow Chemical is going to be shutting down plants in North America and Europe because of the extreme local cost of oil, natural gas, and energy in general. Where are they going to move these facilities? China, the Middle East, and Russia, because the cost of energy (and oil) is so much lower there.
Throughout history, societies and civilizations at their peak have experienced catastrophic collapse because of a lack of critical resources. We need things like this to start going up RIGHT NOW to help move the incredible inertia that is our brain-dead society toward more responsible resource usage. If nothing else it gives responsible consumers a choice and the chance to do the right thing. I couldn't be happier that gas is at or over $4 per gallon. I live below my means and I drive a fuel efficient vehicle. I have chosen to consume wisely, and hopefully now that there is some pressure on people's wallets they'll start asking for (and getting) more responsible options.
Gas prices aside, waiting for such options to become competitive with *today's* conventional resource prices is horribly short sighted and will only lead to more pain.
Those of you spouting off your electric bill costs need to realize that rates very WILDLY from state to state due to regulation and deregulation.
I'm in MD where they tried to deregulate and bring in competition... well, here, it did NOT work.
I now pay close to $250 a month, and I don't know anyone who pays under $100... even those in studio apartments with no AC.
WInd power is great and all but for the rich who tend to like to own beach front house, it would be smarter to buy one less benz and put some soalr panels. For the price of a car they can easily power their houses and sell extra power to boot.
WInd power is great and all but for the rich who tend to like to own beach front house, it would be smarter to buy one less benz and put some soalr panels. For the price of a car they can easily power their houses and sell extra power to boot.
WInd power is great and all but for the rich who tend to like to own beach front house, it would be smarter to buy one less benz and put some soalr panels. For the price of a car they can easily power their houses and sell extra power to boot.
They say if energy costs are dropping then people won't mind, but the people of Martha's Vineyard still seem to mind the one they are planning to build offshore there...
The Delaware shore, I think, is a great place to try out this technology, since as someone mentioned above, the power consumption in these towns like rehoboth, bethany, dewey, etc., drops off significantly after the summer months and everyone goes back to DC and Philly. The placement of the wind park is also good as looking at the map, it's not like they're putting them right off of the main beaches, but in this semi-"dead zone" between Rehoboth and Bethany, so really the "eye-sore" factor will be minimal and confined to maybe a few complainers.
The contract is to last for 25 years, but the turbines will likely not get torn down, and a new contract more appropriate to the economy at that time will be redrawn. Im sure the state is just looking towards providing green Energy as quickly as possible apparently even willing to subsidize some of the cost themselves.
As far as damage The wind turbines will freely rotate into the wind and feather the blades to reduce spin speeds to compensate for the increased winds, possibly coming to a complete stop if forces are bad enough. And as far as a wave goes if a 100+ foot tall wave rolls through there I think the turbines will be the least of Delawares concerns. And I cant imagine that that area is any where near the shipping lanes of the port so it wouldn't effect cargo ships what so ever dumb para gliders though I could see causing a problem.
Let' just hope the windpark doesn't get hit by an oiltanker eh.
Just make sure Ted Kennedy doesn't get wind of it. He fought against the one in Massachusetts because he didn't want to see it while sailing his yacht.
Exactly. All because he didn't like the idea of them being within sight. Politicians ... they think they own the place.
It is the same thing in coastal central California. Residents were complaining about cleaner, efficient and more environmentally energy options. So, the state planned to do the same as they are doing in Delaware, but the residents didn't want it off the coast, because they could see it with binoculars, or just barely see it with their eyes if they have normal vision so to speak. So it was never built. The rich are odd.
Same thing happened in California. The residents who wanted wind energy later complained that it will ruin their view of the ocean, yet from what I hear it would have been barely seen from their homes on the coast.
Even if we say the average home in delaware today costs $80/mo in electricity costs....with power costs going up just like everything else, you can assume that it will go up 20% every 5 years so that by 2025, the cost would be (if they werent using wind power) $240/mo. However with this system, their price would stay constant over the next 25 years and after that it would be like free power.
He just has to make sure his hair plugs don't fly out.
Also, you could put him on a boat near these and generate more wind than a hurricane.
We here in Massachusetts was supposed to get a windfarm off Cape Cod but that was struck down by Senator Ted Kennedy.
Typical "do as I say, not as I do" politician. He preaches environmental responsibility yet does everything but be environmentally responsible. Betweem the McMansion Kennedy Compound and taking private jets across a postage stamp sized state, he still manages with a straight face to tell people to be more green.
Kennedy and his affluent neighbors are saying the Cape Wind project would cause irreparable damage to the shore and be a hazard to navigation. The reality, they don't want windmills 12 miles off "their coastline" or have to steer their 90ft yachts around some wind turbines.
Stupid Ted Kennedy
/end rant
I say "Go Deleware!"