Wind power is the number one source of renewable energy in the US, but nearly all this stems from onshore wind. The US offshore wind industry is underdeveloped and, with only two small offshore operations to date, it lags far behind Europe and China by comparison. The FT’s Derek Brower looks at why progress is slow, and what the White House is trying to do about it.

    #offshorewind #renewableenergy

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    45 Comments

    1. Russia's invasion of Ukraine??? Nothing is going to replace fossil fuel, we were born with that and that's how it will remain, all these fake nonsense will not last, ((climate change is a hoax)), nothing will happen to our eco system, never mind what people do, Bye-Then.

    2. About 230,000 birds are killed after colliding with a wind turbine every year.

      By comparison, cats are responsible for the deaths of 2.4 billion birds each year. After that, collisions with building glass and vehicles are to blame for about another 800 million deaths.

    3. Why did Prof. Scott McWilliams not mention that cars kill 100x more birds than wind turbines? And why didn't he let us know that office buildings kill 100x more birds than cars? And how about cats killing 100x more birds than office buildings? And let's not even talk about the massive number of bird deaths from fossil fuel air pollution. So disappointing. 🤷‍♀

    4. I wonder if wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico are feasible, or if the frequent hurricanes in that region make it a non-option. There's also the factor of the incredible number of variety of birds that fly across the Gulf every year.

    5. Intermittent and reliable energy are not the same thing. Some W&S makes sense if there is enough firm, reliable power to insure stability. Too much raises costs and weakens infrastructure. W&S operate on top of reliable energy, not instead of reliable energy.

    6. Of course, we don't have birds in Europe, largely because we installed wind farms. Utterly wiped out. It's kind of tragic.

      He can't use the data for European wind farms though, because of American exceptionalism. Their birds just aren't anything like ours.

      Alternatively, it could be house cats that are the real risk to birds.

      No-one should call themselves a journalist if they're going to put out this kind of negative nonsense without refuting such claims with readily available information and respectable sources.

    7. Without a radical breakthrough in storage, wind and solar require building more fossil fuel plants to balance the supply.
      Want to save the planet? Build nuclear.

    8. The problem is that fossil fuels are required to build the infrastructure, perform maintenance, provide raw materials for structural elements, etc. You need fossil fuels to ship materials around to support these wind turbines and off shore facilities.

    9. Birds Vs the survival of humanity by limiting climate change. Is it really that hard of a choice? We don't have time to look at the long term because we wasted the last 30yrs doing nothing.

    10. What we really need is more clean, reliable nuclear power.
      Now we're seeing what happens when policymakers are influenced by activists, they get what they thought they wanted: a forced reduction in fossil fuel usage causing energy problems.
      This kind of action never ends well. We've spent decades wasting time and ra esources on dilute intermittent power sources while penalizing dense reliable sources, and we are now suffering energy shortages and seriously weakened infrastructure due to our obsession with RE.
      The pain and suffering of this crisis — a crisis of not enough reliable electricity — is happening right now. As usual the poorer parts of the world suffer the most as coal, oil and gas that was slated for them is now being diverted to wealthier countries. How can we talk about reducing emissions when wealthy countries are throwing their climate targets out the window to keep warm this winter?
      Like fossil fuels, nuclear can produce nation-scale electricity reliably year-round, regardless of time of day or season. Unlike fossil fuels it does so cleanly.
      if we are going to successfully decarbonize, energy must be secure and reliable first.

    11. All this is great but shouldn't the U.S. also construct a truly 'national' grid. To my knowledge it has three separated grids. That is, when there is no wind in on the east coast, energy cannot be taken from the west coast or even the centre.

    12. no mention of building wind farms in right whale protection zones creating large amounts of low frequency noise which are the predominate sensory modality of whales .

    13. These nimbys in Massachusetts shot down the offshore windfarm they were trying to build. They throw fits when a solar farm is proposed in their communities. But yet they demand we switch to green energy.

    14. It's good if we have things prepared as marxist economics to my personal understanding comes after capitalism to turn every inch of its development to benefit the existence of labouring force and growing more with it

    15. When you consider that a turbine never saves as much co2 as it takes to build and service them, and this cold calm week they produced almost nothing, you have to wonder at the IQ of their supporters. 10 days now in the UK and hardly any wind, and it's freezing cold.
      Utterly useless.

    16. How long will they last , What is the impact to marine life , Will they cost more to maintain than they produce , ARE they just another plastic bottle and bag mess ?

    17. The National Geographic warned, before they were built, that placing wind farms on the ridges of California where the onshore and offshore winds meet could have macro-climatic effects. Guess what? A high pressure area that now builds over Arizona is having macro-climatic effects. Golly.

    18. Sometimes I wonder what the world would have looked like without innovations like this😊, my advice for everyone, both in the agricultural industry and elsewhere, is to evolve with the world in others so as not to to be left behind

    19. Offshore windmills are a scheme for navies to restrict shipping lanes and that is why it is important to have Dynairships of Robert L. Morrison's patented lighter than air solids sealed in metal foil having nuclear powered jet engines to transport freight along with Mary Kenney's patents for of louver covered ground based ducted fans referenced from Marshal J Corbett of Guman Patent for of cold plasma aerial highways depicte4d in of film "NeoSeoul 211 44 A.D.."

      Imperial Japan had sulfur fueled steam filled airships and deuterium fueled rocket propelled gliders above terror of Roosevelt's Allied aggression until Fall of 1945 when Allies forced Japan to have rail transit and solar agricultural farms.

    20. If offshore wind is such an underused resource, why does it require the US government to subsidize it? If the people in New York think that their electricity bills are high now, just wait until these unnecessary monstrosities go online.

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