Oopsie…

So much for those offshore wind farms being safe and not a problem…

Nantucket beaches were shut down to swimming on Tuesday after a Vineyard Wind offshore wind turbine broke and beachgoers began finding debris from the blade damage incident.

The offshore wind development company on Tuesday said it was sending debris recovery teams to Nantucket’s southern-facing beaches, adding that the cause of the breakage remained unknown. Vineyard Wind’s operations have also been temporarily shut down following the incident.

“Vineyard Wind is fully committed to a swift and safe recovery of all debris, with an unwavering focus on community safety and environmental protection,” the company said in a statement.

Full article, HERE from the Boston Herald.

Edit- Added pic thanks to Stretch! That brown stuff on the column is leaking oil!!!

I find it interesting that no mention is made of any ‘other’ damage, like oil leaks or anything else. At 300+ feet long, those are some BIG blades, and I’m sure there is a lot of lubrication and other products in those units that aren’t good for the environment, but hey, it’s ‘wind’, so it’s all good, right? Right???

Sigh…

Meanwhile, the Dutch are falling away from wind power, HERE. And Germany is getting rid of wind farms to open coal mines.

And I don’t even want to get into the birdstrike issues…

But it’s GREEN…that’s all that counts.

Comments

Oopsie… — 12 Comments

  1. I have seen the Wind Farm in Altamont Pass off I580 in Northern California for decades. Many of the turbines are not working. Each year they kill thousands to millions of birds on the north/south treks each way.

    The problem is each turbine is toxic, requires much maintenance, and each one needs connections that various power plants would not need making them cheaper. This is the same with solar panel farms. Wind Farm power generation depends on the wind speed and if it is too low or too high and direction. The same problem with solar that they generate only with sun and if there is snow, dirt or dust on the panels then it affects power generation. Overtime they all stop working and get put into toxic trash areas.

  2. Germany going from Wind Power to Coal fired power. who’da thunk. Of course back in 2011 Germany decided to phase out and shut down all its nuclear power plants by 2022 (and at least in the short term replace that power with coal) in response to Fukushima. Ignoring the fact that most German plants were inland, and the North Sea and Baltic Sea aren’t particularly subject to Tsunamis.

  3. It is green – lots of green being moved, redistributed via taxes and subsidies from taxpayers to the friends of the governments involved.

  4. FYI, that Dutch article is from 2011.
    Lots of people are waking up to the idiocy… I hope the trend continues.

  5. There’s lots of grift in Green. Once the subsidies and grift dry up, I think the push toward Green goes down considerably as does the push toward electric vehicles. Nuclear is the only “clean” way to meet our future electric needs.

  6. As noted, Green=$$$. When we first shopped for power here in Texas back in 2015, we chose a “100% wind” plan that was 4.6 cents/Kwh, not including delivery and taxes. It was nice to have those tax money subsidies help us out a bit. Thanks to all who contributed.

    These days, no such plans available from the same company. Prices continue to go up, although they fluctuate somewhat with demand, currently about 17.9 cents/Kwh. I managed to snag a plan last year at 8.9 cents locked in for five years.

  7. Yes, it is an old article, but still points out the reality… And yes, plenty of $$$ change hands! RHT you’re LUCKY!!!

  8. Broken fiberglass can be sharp, unlike those that think offshore windfarms are a good idea.

  9. The rent-seekers and subsidy-farmers are building solar industrial facilities – they are NOT “farms” – on good, productive farming land.

    They will not do it out in the arid land. Land there is cheap, but the cost of transmission lines more than offsets any savings in land-prices. So they are grabbing for land under or adjacent to existing transmission lines.

    That should tell you something about the grid-costs of wind and solar…… but apparently good intentions matter more than good results.

  10. There are stacks and acres of blades in several places in the midwest, that haven’t been shipped or moved for 8 or 10 years , just manufactured and sitting there . Don’t know what the plan is for them. Some folks made some money Siemens (Seimens?) , and the plant had good paying jobs , but no, they seem to be a lot of trouble for the cost benefit return .

    • If those are old blades, I wonder if they are of the non-recyclable type.