“Offshore wind is essentially a government-made market that would not exist in the U.S. but for a massive intervention from Washington and an ‘at-any-cost’ mentality at the state level. Of the alleged 15,650 MW of offshore wind in DOE’s pipeline, a very small fraction represents projects proffered by private entities.”
It’s official. At a White House summit last month, the Obama administration publicly backed its new government program – offshore wind. With America’s first offshore project now under construction, and the Department of Energy’s (DOE) latest analysis showing 21 projects totaling 15,650 megawatts in the works, the political boost could trigger a development boom.
But don’t count on it. The already uneconomic on land is only worse off in the waters.
Washington’s Wishful Thinking
Washington’s support for wind power is ideological, steeped in wishful thinking about what could be built, both on- and off- shore.…
“What about the more than 50% of Nebraska’s severe weather that occurs at night and with no regard for holidays and weekends? Does anyone expect NextEra employees to make up for the loss in radar resolution from the company’s wind power facilities?”
Since 2009, two Nebraska communities have been destroyed by tornadoes, the most recent in June, 2014 (in Pilger). Articles covering these disasters can be found here and here.
Needless to say, accurate weather forecasting is essential for protecting life and property. But what happens when wind turbines are placed too close to a NEXRAD [1] weather radar? We may know soon enough.
NextERA’s Cottonwood wind project (113.6 MW) proposes to site all of its 52 turbines within 2½ to 7 miles of the Blue Hill, Nebraska NEXRAD facility.…
“The PTC offsets the high price of wind energy, giving the false impression that wind is competitive with other resources. But with capacity factors under 30%, project operation costs likely exceed the average wholesale price of energy in most areas of the U.S. Wind only appears to be a ‘cheaper competitor’ because it’s subsidized to a point where economics have no meaning in the wholesale market.”
We learned this week that the Senate Finance Committee plans to mark-up a new tax extender bill. This news comes just seven months after Congress enacted the controversial $42 billion tax credit (HR 5771) giveaway. Apparently, the promise of long-term broad base tax reform has again been pushed aside in favor of short-term relief for select taxpayers.
Over the coming months, a tidal wave of lobbyists will descend on Capitol Hill with countless reasons for why their industry deserves special consideration.…