The offshore wind industry moving into waters close to our shores is no longer something in the distant future. It is here, and with it comes a need to keep a watchful eye: Are these massive companies delivering on their promises that were made to the Island and the region? Will they work with us, and not against us?
It’s a difficult question and task that will take more than just one newspaper, but Island residents, regional and national news organizations, fishermen, and anyone else invested in the waterfront as well.
At the beginning of the year — just before midnight on Jan. 2 — Vineyard Wind announced that the first gigawatts of power from the wind farm 15 miles south of the Island were delivered through an undersea cable, connecting to the New England grid near a beach in Barnstable. The developers missed an end-of-the-year target, but it was a major milestone, as the state and country look to develop greener energy alternatives.
At the end of February, Vineyard Wind announced that the first five turbines — out of 62 — were generating 68 megawatts of power, enough to power 30,000 homes in Massachusetts.
While the turbines have been built, and are working, the latest job report for Vineyard Wind has not been promising for Islanders. Out of the nearly 1,800 union and nonunion workers hired by Vineyard Wind since our reporting in January, only eight were from the Vineyard. Only one of those hires was a union job.
In fairness to Vineyard Wind, they say that the 80 jobs that they have promised will go to Islanders later in the development, when the need for workers to operate and maintain spinning turbines is greater. We hope they hold to that commitment.
It isn’t just Vineyard Wind that is moving forward. Federal officials announced at the end of February that they had completed an environmental review of New England Wind, a much larger operation, planned for waters about 20 miles from Chappaquiddick. The developer — also a subsidiary of Avangrid — is proposing up to 129 wind turbines, and up to five offshore export cables, that would transmit electricity to onshore transmission systems in the town of Barnstable and Bristol County.
There are several other proposals in the pipeline as well, including SouthCoast Wind, South Fork Wind, Sunrise Wind, Bay State Wind — all off our coast.
Some Islanders have already noted the appearance of the turbines that have been put up for Vineyard Wind. At night, the blinking red lights are visible from the Island’s south coast in areas like Lucy Vincent Beach. We want to know what our readers think of these impacts — is it significant, a nuisance, or a small price to pay for mitigating a climate crisis? Could there be alternatives that would minimize the impact? We are vested in investigating those options.
It’s not just landowners on the coast. We also know that local fishermen have their concerns. They worry about fishing gear loss and damage; there are also implications to surveying fish near turbines. And while Vineyard Wind and the federal government have set up compensation funds to help commercial fishermen, we know that they might not help our fishermen here locally. And local fishermen are voices that need to be heard.
But while there are valid concerns, misinformation and the purposeful spreading of false information has no place in these ongoing developments. As we have shared in this week’s paper, the New Bedford Light, a nonprofit news organization reporting on the South Coast of Massachusetts, wrote an important story about the spread of misinformation following the death of a young North Atlantic right whale that washed ashore on the Vineyard earlier this year.
As the Light’s reporting shows, some Facebook posts falsely claimed that there was no rope around the whale’s tail, and that a rope was ultimately planted on the animal later. None of that is true, as witnessed by our own reporters. When pressed for a reason why the false information was posted, the group Save Dolphins and Whales New Jersey provided little explanation. Quite the opposite; the group went on the offensive, attacking the Light’s reporter with further false information. Yet the post has been shared online 217 times.
The group is pointing a finger at the offshore wind industry, despite any concrete evidence that wind is playing a role in the deaths of whales and dolphins. The New Jersey group went so far as to claim that pile-driving at the construction site caused the young whale’s death. As the Light reports, there was no pile-driving going on anywhere near at the time of the whale’s death. The misinformation is unfortunate, and not helpful to anyone.
Ultimately, offshore wind will put a significant dent in our region’s carbon emissions. As Vineyard Wind likes to promise, they alone will be able to power 400,000 homes. Environmentalists say that’s the equivalent of taking 325,000 cars off the roads — not an insignificant amount. And in a globe that seems in peril from a climate crisis, wind energy is a must.
But the Vineyard is hosting much of that industry near its shores. Any impacts should be mitigated as best as possible, and that those hit the hardest need to be compensated.
These are large corporations that have made significant promises. The Vineyard can’t be left with a raw deal. And it’s incumbent on all of us to point out the shortcomings.
So this article states:
… “5 turbines were generating 68 megawatts of power, enough for 30,000 homes.”
68 megawatts is 68,000,000 watts – delivering 68,000 kW of power when they are spinning.
I did some calculations to compare with solar energy, and it seems that this would require less than 90 acres. We probably have more than 90 acres of large parking lots, each PV parking lot with it’s own battery bank, with underground wires to connect to the surrounding neighborhoods.
Imagine PV canopies over them, also offering protection from baking sun and pouring rain.
Here are the numbers:
We can generate 68 megawatts (68,000,000 watts) of solar power with 170,000 PV panels @ 400-watts.
They measure 21 sq.ft. each, and will thus require 3,570,000 sq.ft. of total area.
3,570,000 sq.ft. divided by 43,562 sq.ft./acre = 81.9 acres. Less than 90 acres!!
So, the 68,000 kW of power from those 5 wind turbines is enough to power 30,000 homes.
My numbers indicate that 68,000 kW of solar power would be enough to make more than half of the island energy independent, permanently. Please help scrutinize my calculations and numbers. Thanks.
And the cost?
Here’s my own plan for going 100% solar, and thus go totally grid/propane/oil/gasoline-free.
This will require 48 PV panels @ 400 watts /panel (a 19 kW PV system, a 19,000-watt array, requiring 1008 sq.ft.), and 80 kWh of battery storage – enough to keep everything running even through extended cloudy conditions, including 2 Nissan Leaf EV cars.
The entire 19-kW PV array kit, including 48 PV panels, inverters, cables etc, costs $44,000, with free shipping. Only $44,000 for all the materials!
It will produce 15,000 kWh annually, which is worth $7650 at today rate of $0.51/kWh.
By no longer paying for grid electricity, propane or fuel and upkeep of 2 gasoline cars, I will save at least $16,000 annually. That’s enough to pay off the loan AND leave me several thousands in profits, increasing as the cost of gasoline, heating fuel, and grid electricity will inevitably keep rising.
Thus, by extrapolation, the cost of all materials for a complete 170,000-PV-panel + battery storage system would be roughly $160,000,000 (maybe much less because of scaling).
Let’s double that to include installation: maybe $320,000,000 total installed?
Financed over 20 years @ 6%, the financing would cost $27,648,000/year.
Each panel would generate 366 kWh/year – yes, on the Vineyard!
Thus, 170,000 PV panels would generate 62,220,000 kWh/year, which @ $0.51/kWh is currently worth $31,732,200, which will increase as the cost of grid electricity keeps rising.
With $27,648,000 financing cost and $31,732,200 value of the electricity, this PV system would actually yield a first-year profit of $4,084,200.
It seems that stationary offshore wind turbines cost about $1,000,000 per megawatt. Thus 5 of these turbines making 68 megawatts probably cost roughly $68,000,000.
But I wonder, is this the full all-inclusive-cost-to-completion number, including the cost of design, engineering, lawyers and permitting, and all the support ships, infrastructure on land and in the harbor, and the many miles of cables to connect all the turbines and deliver all the way to the substation on the Cape, and probably another thousand costs?
And the maintainance?
Properly installed, good quality PV-battery systems cost very very little to maintain, and cause very very very little CO2 pollution.
By contrast, the Vinyard Wind turbines require extremely costly maintenance. The insurance, the high wages for the crews that will sometime have to risk their lives as they do there jobs on stormy seas and 450 feet feet above the surface of the water. How many fulltime employees? Costing how much, including benefits, annually?
Will the ships and maintenance platform be electric powered?
If not, then there will be thousands of tons of CO2 pollution from running ships and immense machinery the 60-mile roundtrip between the turbines and Vineyard Haven harbor, in diesel-guzzling vessels. How many MPG? How often?
And perhaps the biggest advantage of all, is that with these local independent solar systems, much of the Vineyard would be able to disconnect from the grid, and also from propane and gasoline, and run everything on just solar power and enough batteries to keep everything running even after the Big Blackout hits us.
Thus, we would no longer need any connection with the mainland grid – which they now tell us could go down nation-wide any time and for a very very long time, sabotaged by cyber or physical attacks on less than 10 of the 55,000 substations across the nation. This has become impossible to prevent, and is inevitable as long as the rage in America keeps rising.
That’s why I will go 100% independent self-sufficient solar, and live home-free and secure ever after, with 2 Leaf cars, without any heating fuels, gasoline or grid electricity.
I hope most Vineyarders do the same.
And here’s something that I feel is an extremely sad reconsequence of all these wind turbines out there: we will no longer be able to see the ocean horizon on a moonlit night. All we’ll see is a line of blinking red lights.
Anna, You’re my Hero! ❤️
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Finally!! Someone stepped up to what is possible!! Yes, Anna, each home should become energy independent from the grid. Buy YOUR OWN solar system!!
(By the way, check around for buying the materials yourself, you could probably save 10k and then be sure to get your tax refund.)
EVERY ROOF should be covered in solar panels!! Schools too! These ridiculous numbers thrown around to install traditional heating systems is a joke. Heat Pumps! For heating air and water. Buy your own electric car! BMW makes an i7 that gets 321 miles of range from one charge.
EVERY architect should ONLY design passive solar buildings. Every new roof should be white metal. Windows should be triple glazed. Buildings should be super-insulated.
Let’s say that my power bill is $440 per month (that’s the average around here), then once it’s paid off, bank that money 💰 for a trip around the world. Have you been to Victoria Falls yet? It’s always fun to go to Paris…
Where were ten years ago when the barn door was opened. The horses are out, they are not coming back.
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