The Growing Reality of Short Wind Turbine Lifetimes Will Highlight the True Huge Costs of Wind

This means it has lasted only 15 years, which appears to be generally true of wind plants, according to a Renewable Energy Foundation article. However the design lifetime is assumed to be about 20–25 years......

It is important to remember that most of the wind turbines in operation world-wide were installed after the year 2000. So a rapidly increasing number of these should soon start to show signs of a much reduced lifetime.

As an aside, many calculations of the much relied on measure of levelized hourly cost assume a 30-year lifetime. This is the cost per MWh produced over the plant lifetime. As a result, many publications of levelized costs for wind turbines are understated by a factor of about two.............

https://www.masterresource.org/offshore/offshore-wind/

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Comment by Barbara Durkin on April 27, 2016 at 11:18am

For several years, during project permit review, 17 entities, the FAA and USCG, conducted very expensive and hardware-specific studies to determine the impacts of Cape Wind's offshore wind project that featured (130) GE 3.6 MW wind turbines "discontinued" by GE.  And, you paid for this. 

During 2005, Cape Wind project opponents pressured the federal and state regulators to acknowledge and address the phantom Cape Wind project they considered could produce reliable energy at a commercially reasonable cost by installing? “discontinued” wind turbines.

Cape Cod Times, September 25, 2008: ‘GE may change Cape Wind direction’

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080925/BI...

This article states:

“General Electric — identified earlier as the prospective supplier of wind turbines — appears to have dropped the 3.6-megawatt model Cape Wind had hoped to use, said Rodney Cluck, Cape Wind project manager for U.S. Minerals Management Service.”

“In documents filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Massachusetts environmental officials before 2005, Cape Wind officials listed the GE model as the turbine they had planned to use for the project, Cluck said.”

However; Cape Wind “discontinued” GE 3.6 MW wind turbine were featured in the MMS Cape Wind draft EIS, while Rodney Cluck was project manager:

Cape Wind Energy Project
Draft Environmental Impact Statement
January 2008
Bookmark 2.0 “Description of Proposed Action”
(see top of page 69-70 where Cape Wind identifies GE 3.6 MW wind turbines will be used)
http://www.mms.gov/offshore/renewableenergy/DEIS/Volume%20I%20-%20C...

Offshore wind is neither commercially reasonable nor technically viable.

‘Made in Germany’ (note that workers at Bremehaven offshore wind port in Germany are interviewed)–
‘No Wind in Its Sails? Offshore wind farms in crisis’
“In cities like Bremerhaven, the offshore wind power industry is in crisis. Just a few years ago, the city was still drawing major companies like Areva, Weserwind and Powerblades. Nearly 4,000 new jobs were created over a decade. But with orders languishing, the companies are now cutting back.”
http://www.dw.de/no-wind-in-it

February
21, 2016
The Sunday Times
‘When the wind blows, there’s little benefit for Scotland’

“The hype over our offshore farms has failed to match the reality in spectacular fashion — and problems are mounting, writes former energy minister Brian Wilson,.”
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.u

‘Offshore Wind Turbine Maintenance Cost Fiasco: „100 Times More Expensive Than A New Turbine Itself“!’
By P Gosselin on 2. Februar 2016

“A press release by Germany’s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft reports how offshore North and Baltic Sea wind turbines need to be in operation for 25 years before they become profitable, but that they are prone to shortened lifespans due to rust from the harsh sea environment.


As a result the wind turbine installations need extra and very costly maintenance to ensure that they survive long enough. It’s turning out to be an insurmountable challenge…”
– See more at:
http://notrickszone.com/2016/0

‘Jobs go at Offshore Wind Solutions’
“German services outfit Offshore Wind Solutions is to cut up to 100 jobs, around one-third of the workforce, as part of a restructuring plan.

“Staff were told in early February that jobs would go following the company’s failure to secure sufficient work in the German North Sea.

A contract to address defects at Bard’s 400MW Bard Offshore 1 project, which started in 2013, is now almost over. OWS will continue with regular O&M at the wind
farm…”

‘Offshore Wind Solutions cuts green jobs by 1/3 (-100) due to lack of work’
Renewable Energy News
http://renews.biz/101474/jobs-

‘Unreliable Power: Major Technical Failure Sidelines Another Offshore Wind Park…Adding To Exploding Costs’
By P Gosselin on 4. Februar 2016
‘Unreliable Power: Major Technical Failure Sidelines Another Offshore Wind Park…Adding To
Exploding Costs’


“I’ve reported earlier on Germany’s BARD 1 offshore engineering fiasco, where technical problems continue plaguing the wind park and has yet to deliver power on shore to reach markets. Even today the situation there remains unclear.

Moreover, just days I ago I reported how an expert institute confirmed that offshore wind park installations are highly vulnerable to the harsh sea conditions and plagued by stratospheric maintenance costs.

Well there is another major wind park that is now struggling with major technical problems and thus will not be able to deliver power until at least (optimistically) April. The giant offshore Riffgat wind park hasn’t delivered power since November of last year, so reports NDR German public broadcasting here…”
http://notrickszone.com/2016/0

SEENEWS RENEWABLES
Jan 25, 2016
Offshore Wind project, Vattenfall, dismantled due to technical and financial problems.
http://renewables.seenews.com/

More–

SeeNews Renewables, February 23, 2015:
‘Dong’s Anholt offshore wind farm shuts down due to new cable fault’
RENEWS Jan 27, 2015: 273 faulty blades must be repaired or replaced after only 6 years (Horns Rev 2 offshore wind farm in Denmark)

RENEWS Dec 29, 2014: Nuon has shut down the nearshore wind farm, Lely, in the Netherlands after the rotor head and blades fell off.

Spiegel: Germany’s Large-Scale Offshore Windpark Dream Morphs Into An Engineering And Cost Nightmare
By P Gosselin on 11. September 2014
(my summary with quotes)
Germany’s flagship BARD Offshore I is a 400MW wind project intended to supply the energy needs of 400,000 households. But Bard Offshore 1 remains out of operation according to industry source

Offshore Wind Biz
(June 2014) citing: “frequent technical problems with the converter substation,” “a smoldering fire,” “failure of the system,” “five unplanned outages since the beginning of 2014” and “transmission problems.”

WindPowerOffshore (September 19, 2014) reports the:
“Danish company Vattenfall is going to dismantle the Yttre Stengrund in Swedish waters after only 13 years of operation. “Only one in (5) turbines is currently operational.”

Wall Street Journal [1/08/14]:
“Siemens, the world’s largest manufacturer of offshore wind turbines, and its partners concede they underestimated the challenges behind offshore wind.


The financial fallout from these challenges was highlighted on Thursday, when Siemens said it booked €128 million ($171 million) in new charges related to connecting offshore wind farms to the power grid. It blamed unexpectedly high costs for shipping, installing and starting up grid components.”

Spiegel International article ‘Turbine Trouble: Ill Wind Blows for German Offshore Industry’ states, “Operators of offshore wind farms depend on sufficiently high electricity prices to refinance their investments.”

Cape Wind's "discontinued" wind turbines specified by Cape Wind


GE 3.6 MW offshore wind turbine status:
“General Electric 3.6sl (discontinued). Capacity 3.6 MW, rotor diameter 111 m. Hub height 75 m (from Cape Wind design specs). Seven 3.6s units producing power offshore at Arklow Bank since June 2004. See product brochure for GE 3.6sl. Based on experience at Arklow, GE had a set of engineering modifications to make for serial production of an offshore machine, but the company has to date decided not to compete in this market.”

http://www.ocean.udel.edu/windpower/hardware.html

Page 47 MMS Final Outer Continental Shelf rules with which Cape Wind then must, but was unable to comply, as Cape Wind lacked a manufacturing source for their wind turbines:

“Based on comments received on the NPR, MMS added a requirement to this section that in order to qualify to become a lessee or a grant holder, the applicant must demonstrate technical and financial capabilities to construct, operate and maintain, and terminate/decommission projects for which you are requesting authorization.”

http://www.mms.gov/offshore/AlternativeEnergy/PDFs/AD30RenewableEne...

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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