Comment

Comment by Penny Gray on December 25, 2024 at 5:21pm

Willem Post, can you please write a book and market it on Amazon?  It would be a best seller in this Age of Enlightenment, and then I can read the way I like to read, sitting in my chair next to the wood stove, holding the book in my hands.

Thank you for all the outstanding information you give to this site.  It's a lot to take in in one sitting, but it's priceless.

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:59pm

Europe is Not Our Ally

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Europe wants to foist high electricity prices onto the US, using the ruse of global-warming/climate-change, so the US will also be in big do-do, to preserve Europe’s extremely advantageous trade balance with the US.
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Why in hell is GE, a US company, in cahoots with a French company, building several hundred experimental rotor blades in Quebec, Canada, and have them transported from Quebec to Cape Cod, and, because of defects, from Cape Cod to France and back to Cape Cod, using European-owned, specialized ships, to a French rotor blade production facility, which happens to have a more suitable testing lab?

Why is field testing not done after lab testing?
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US Government and Democrat Cabal Screwing American Workers

How low can a US company and US government go by screwing US workers out of jobs?

The Inflation Reduction Act was sold to the gullible/misinformed public, because “it would create jobs in the US”
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The Socialist/Obama-holdover cabal, using demented BIDEN/word-salad HARRIS as its puppets for 4 years, did its Offshore Wind thing, and its Open Borders thing, its DEI/Woke thing, etc., and drove US society of its tracks, and ran up huge federal deficits and grossly increased the size of federal government and national debt.

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The cabal “things” ended up screwing the American people, and fattened the treasure chests of:

1) the traitorous cabal and associated entities, and

2) Europe, the reason the European elites like Biden/Harris so much.

Was cabal thinking the American people would just put up with this crap forever?

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Now you see why the American people finally had to take revenge by voting the cabal idiots out.

Now you see why former Democrats Trump, Gabbard, Musk and RFK, Jr. became Republicans

Now you see why the Amish, who normally do not vote, finally went to the polls and voted for Trump.

Now you see why Christians turned out to vote for Trump, en masse, to preserve Christianity.
Now you see why European elites hate Trump, because Trump puts America first, unlike two-faced, obstructionist RINOs, like Senators Collins, Murkowski, etc.  

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:58pm

Trump Was Right About the Deep State!

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Remember when he said Drain-the-Swamp. It's a deep swamp!!!

This is why the Deep State manipulated you to hate him. He is a threat, not to Democracy, but to them!!
You must know some details to be informed:

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The Governor of Michigan used to work for George Soros 

Calif. Gov. Newsom is Nancy Pelosi’s nephew

Adam Schiff’s sister is married to one of George Soros’s sons 

John Kerry’s daughter is married to a Mullah’s son in Iran 

Hillary’s daughter is married to George Soros’s nephew 

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ABC News executive-producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice, Obama’s former National Security Advisor

CBS president David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications

ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman is married to Jay Carney, former Obama White House Press Secretary  
ABC News and Univision reporter Matthew Jaffe is married to Kate Hogan, Obama’s former Deputy Press Secretary
ABC president Ben Sherwood is the brother of Elizabeth Sherwood, Obama’s former Special Advisor.
CNN VP Virginia Mosely is married to Tom Nides, former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary.

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This is what you call a "STACKED DECK".

If you had a hunch the Corporate News menu was rigged, and you could not put your finger on it, this might help you solve the puzzle.

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Now you know why no one is investigated. They all have their hands in the cookie jar!
You might remember James Comey who investigated the Clinton email scandal and the Clinton Foundation, and made the final decision to not recommend prosecution by the DOJ. 

It turns out that the Clinton Foundation was audited by the law firm DLA Piper, a powerhouse in DC 

One of the executives there was in charge of the Clinton Foundation audit. 

Who was it?  Peter Comey, James Comey’s brother. 

Peter Comey held an executive position with the Washington law firm that did the audit of the Clinton foundation in 2015.  

Peter Comey was officially DLA Piper “Senior Director of Real Estate for The Americas in 2015 when the Clinton Foundation scandals first broke, and Hillary was preparing her Presidential campaign. 

Not only was DLA Piper, the firm where Comey’s brother worked, involved in the audit of the Clinton Foundation, but according to the foundation’s donor records, DLA Piper has given between $50 - 100k to the Foundation.
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It gets even cozier. 

DLA Piper executive Douglas Emhoff, who impregnated the nanny, during a prior marriage, is taking an extended leave of absence from the firm to campaign for Harris. 

Who is Douglas Emhoff? He is the husband of Kamala Harris. Just a coincidence?  
You can't make this stuff up!  
And it only gets worse.  This infamous "Family Tree" will make your head spin... THE SWAMP IS DEEP!!

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Dominion (Voting Machine Supplier) serves 40% of the US market. It is embedded in 30 states

The state of Texas rejected the machines.   

Admiral Peter Neffenger is on Biden's transition team.

Neffenger was the President of the board of Smartmatic (another Voting Machine Supplier), which entered into an agreement with Dominion in 2009  

Smartmatic counted votes in Venezuela  

Smartmatic is connected to the Philippine Voter Fraud

Smartmatic is run by Lord Mark Malloch Brown, who works for George Soros (he and Brown are life-long friends) 

Brown chairs the Boards of a number of non-profits, including the Open Society Foundation and the Centre for Global Development.   

Open Society Foundation is owned by George Soros 

Smartmatic partnered with DLA Piper Global.
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Guess who owns Dominion? Blum Capital Partners LP

Guess who is on the board for the company?  Richard Blum who is Dianne Feinstein’s husband. 
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Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, is a major investor. It is rumored the two are worth $250 million
An aide to Nancy Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, was hired by Dominion Voting Systems.

Dominion Voting Systems is listed as a $25,000 -$50,000 donor to the Clinton Foundation in 2014, by The Washington Post

 

Georgia Governor Kemp used Dominion Voting Systems after Texas and Florida rejected them  

Dominion has a lobbyist named Jared Thomas 

Jared Thomas was Governor Brian Kemp’s Chief of Staff/Press Secretary from 2012 to 2015.

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You must remember the Feinstein, Kavanaugh, Soros connections to understand this next information  

Debra Katz (Christine Ford's lawyer, who accused Kavanaugh of rape) worked for George-Soros at the Open Society Foundation.  

Debra Katz also worked at Project on Government Oversight (POGO).  

POGO is funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundation.  

POGO is the co-signer of the letter Diane Feinstein presented against Kavanaugh's nomination.  

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Kamala Harris did not prosecute One West Bank for their fraud, when she had the authority, after all, Soros Owned One West Bank 
Now you know why controllable/puppet Harris became controllable/puppet Biden’s running mate in 2020

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The execrable Anne Applebaum, New York Times Journalist, married to Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s hawkish foreign minister and major globalist neocon. The pair see Russia as the Evil Empire, to be divided into 7 manageable pieces.

Madeline Albright, may have said, “Siberia holds too many resources for just one country”.

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Victoria Nuland, former Assistant Secretary of State, spent $5 billion from 1991 to 2014, to prepare the Kiev coup d’etat in 2014, married to Robert Kagan, editor-at-large Washington Post, which did not endorse Harris, resulting in Kagan resigning from WaPo. The LA Times also did not endorse Harris

Many leaders of labor unions, whose members are overwhelmingly for Trump, did not endorse Harris

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Oh, what a tangled web of lies they wove 

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Here are Trump’s ten moves to bury the Deep State.

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1) Firing any and all obstructionist bureaucrats

2) Completely overhauling the corrupt security and intelligence agencies

3) Reforming the FISA courts to stop the abuses against Americans

4) Form a truth and reconciliation commission to address the many crimes and wrongdoings of the government

5) Weed out the spreaders of disinformation from government positions

6) Make Inspectors General fully independent from the agencies they are supposed to monitor

7) Start a Congressional Committee to oversee what the intelligence agencies are actually up to so that any and all illegal spying on Americans can finally be terminated.

8) Move many government agencies out of DC and into places where they can actually serve the public

9) Eliminate the revolving door between government positions and the corporate entities they previously regulated or oversaw

10) Pass a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on Congressional and Senate seats.

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:57pm

Floating Offshore Wind in Norway

Equinor, a Norwegian company, put in operation, 11 Hywind, floating offshore wind turbines, each 8 MW, for a total of 88 MW, in the North Sea. The wind turbines are supplied by Siemens, a German company

Production will be about 88 x 8766 x 0.5, claimed lifetime capacity factor = 385,704 MWh/y, which is about 35% of the electricity used by 2 nearby Norwegian oil rigs, which cost at least $1.0 billion each.

On an annual basis, the existing diesel and gas-turbine generators on the rigs, designed to provide 100% of the rigs electricity requirements, 24/7/365, will provide only 65%, i.e., the wind turbines have 100% back up.

The generators will counteract the up/down output of the wind turbines, on a less-than-minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365

The generators will provide almost all the electricity during low-wind periods, and 100% during high-wind periods, when rotors are feathered and locked.

The capital cost of the entire project was about 8 billion Norwegian Kroner, or about $730 million, as of August 2023, when all 11 units were placed in operation, or $730 million/88 MW = $8,300/kW. See URL

That cost was much higher than the estimated 5 billion NOK in 2019, i.e., 60% higher

The project is located about 70 miles from Norway, which means minimal transport costs of the entire supply to the erection sites

The project produces electricity at about 42 c/kWh, no subsidies, at about 21 c/kWh, with 50% subsidies 

In Norway, all work associated with oil rigs is very expensive.

Three shifts of workers are on the rigs for 6 weeks, work 60 h/week, and get 6 weeks off with pay, and are paid well over $150,000/y, plus benefits.

If Norwegian units were used in Maine, the production costs would be even higher in Maine, because of the additional cost of transport of almost the entire supply, including specialized ships and cranes, across the Atlantic Ocean, plus

A high voltage cable would be hanging from each unit, until it reaches bottom, say about 200 to 500 feet. 

The cables would need some type of flexible support system
The cables would be combined into several cables to run horizontally to shore, for at least 25 to 30 miles, to several onshore substations, to the New England high voltage grid.

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https://www.offshore-mag.com/regional-reports/north-sea-europe/arti...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_wind_turbine

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:56pm

From:

BATTERY SYSTEM CAPITAL COSTS, OPERATING COSTS, ENERGY LOSSES, AND AGING
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital...

 

Utility-scale, battery system pricing usually is not made public, but for this system it was.

Neoen, in western Australia, has just turned on its 219 MW/ 877 MWh Tesla Megapack battery, the largest in western Australia.

Ultimately, it will be a 560 MW/2,240 MWh battery system, $1,100,000,000/2,240,000 kWh = $491/kWh, delivered as AC, late 2024 pricing. Smaller capacity systems will cost much more than $500/kWh

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Annual Cost of Megapack Battery Systems; 2023 pricing
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Assume a system rated 45.3 MW/181.9 MWh, and an all-in turnkey cost of $104.5 million, per Example 2
Amortize bank loan for 50% of $104.5 million at 6.5%/y for 15 years, $5.484 million/y
Pay Owner return of 50% of $104.5 million at 10%/y for 15 years, $6.765 million/y (10% due to high inflation)
Lifetime (Bank + Owner) payments 15 x (5.484 + 6.765) = $183.7 million
Assume battery daily usage for 15 years at 10%, and loss factor = 1/(0.9 *0.9)
Battery lifetime output = 15 y x 365 d/y x 181.9 MWh x 0.1, usage x 1000 kWh/MWh = 99,590,250 kWh to HV grid; 122,950,926 kWh from HV grid; 233,606,676 kWh loss
(Bank + Owner) payments, $183.7 million / 99,590,250 kWh = 184.5 c/kWh
Less 50% subsidies (ITC, depreciation in 5 years, deduction of interest on borrowed funds) is 92.3c/kWh
At 10% throughput, (Bank + Owner) cost, 92.3 c/kWh
At 40% throughput, (Bank + Owner) cost, 23.1 c/kWh
 
Excluded costs/kWh: 1) O&M; 2) system aging, 1.5%/y, 3) 20% HV grid-to-HV grid loss, 4) grid extension/reinforcement to connect battery systems, 5) downtime of parts of the system, 6) decommissioning in year 15, i.e., disassembly, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites. Excluded costs would add at least 15 c/kWh
 

COMMENTS ON CALCULATION

Almost all existing battery systems operate at less than 10%, per EIA annual reports i.e., new systems would operate at about 92.4 + 15 = 107.4 c/kWh. They are used to stabilize the grid, i.e., frequency control and counteracting up/down W/S outputs. If 40% throughput, 23.1 + 15 = 38.1 c/kWh. 

A 4-h battery system costs 38.1 c/kWh of throughput, if operated at a duty factor of 40%.

That is on top of the cost/kWh of the electricity taken from the HV grid to feed the batteries

Up to 40% could occur by absorbing midday solar peaks and discharging during late-afternoon/early-evening, which occur every day in California and other sunny states. The more solar systems, the greater the peaks.

See URL for Megapacks required for a one-day wind lull in New England

40% throughput is close to Tesla’s recommendation of 60% maximum throughput, i.e., not charging above 80% full and not discharging below 20% full, to achieve a 15-y life, with normal aging.

Tesla’s recommendation was not heeded by the Owners of the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia. They excessively charged/discharged the system. After a few years, they added Megapacks to offset rapid aging of the original system, and added more Megapacks to increase the rating of the expanded system.

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-hornsdale-power-res...

Regarding any project, the bank and Owner have to be paid, no matter what. I amortized the bank loan and Owner’s investment

Divide total payments over 15 years by the throughput during 15 years, you get c/kWh, as shown.

There is about a 20% round-trip loss, from HV grid to 1) step-down transformer, 2) front-end power electronics, 3) into battery, 4) out of battery, 5) back-end power electronics, 6) step-up transformer, to HV grid, i.e., you draw about 50 units from the HV grid to deliver about 40 units to the HV grid, because of A-to-Z system losses. That gets worse with aging.

A lot of people do not like these c/kWh numbers, because they have been repeatedly told by self-serving folks, battery Nirvana is just around the corner.

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NOTE: Aerial photos of large-scale battery systems with many Megapacks, show many items of equipment, other than the Tesla supply, such as step-down/step-up transformers, switchgear, connections to the grid, land, access roads, fencing, security, site lighting, i.e., the cost of the Tesla supply is only one part of the battery system cost at a site.

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NOTE: Battery system turnkey capital costs and electricity storage costs likely will be much higher in 2023 and future years, than in 2021 and earlier years, due to: 1) increased inflation rates, 2) increased interest rates, 3) supply chain disruptions, which delay projects and increase costs, 4) increased energy prices, such as of oil, gas, coal, electricity, etc., 5) increased materials prices, such as of tungsten, cobalt, lithium, copper, manganese, etc., 6) increased labor rates.

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:55pm

Levelized Cost of Energy Deceptions, by US-EIA, et al.

Most people have no idea wind and solar systems need grid expansion/reinforcement and expensive support systems to even exist on the grid.

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With increased annual W/S electricity percent on the grid, increased grid investments are needed, plus greater counteracting plant capacity, MW, especially when it is windy and sunny around noon-time.

Increased counteracting of the variable W/S output, places an increased burden on the grid’s other generators, causing them to operate in an inefficient manner (more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh), which adds more cost/kWh to the offshore wind electricity cost of about 15 c/kWh, after 50% subsidies

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The various cost/kWh adders start with annual W/S electricity at about 8% on the grid.

The adders become exponentially greater, with increased annual W/S electricity percent on the grid

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The US-EIA, Lazard, Bloomberg, etc., and their phony LCOE "analyses", are deliberately understating the cost of wind, solar and battery systems

Their LCOE “analyses” of W/S/B systems purposely exclude major LCOE items.

Their deceptions reinforced the popular delusion, W/S are competitive with fossil fuels, which is far from reality.

The excluded LCOE items are shifted to taxpayers, ratepayers, and added to government debts.

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High Costs/kWh of Offshore Wind

Forcing utilities to pay 15 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from fixed offshore wind systems, and forcing utilities to pay 18 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from floating offshore wind systems, is suicidal economic insanity.

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Excluded costs, at 30% wind/solar penetration on the grid, the current UK level: 

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1) Grid extension/reinforcement to connect remote W/S systems to load centers, about 2 c/kWh

2) A fleet of quick-reacting power plants to counteract the variable W/S output, on a less-than-minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, about 2 c/kWh 

3) A fleet of power plants to provide electricity during low-W/S periods, and during high-W/S periods, when rotors are feathered and locked, to provide the electricity not produced by W/S systems, to meet demand, about 2 c/kWh.

4) Output curtailments to prevent overloading the grid, i.e., paying owners for not producing what they could have produced, about 1 c/kWh

5) Disassembly at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/hunga-tonga-volcanic-eruption

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/natural-forces-cause-p...

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:54pm

High Costs/kWh of Offshore Wind

Forcing utilities to pay 15 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from fixed offshore wind systems, and forcing utilities to pay 18 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from floating offshore wind systems, is suicidal economic insanity.

. 

Excluded costs, at a future 30% wind/solar penetration on the grid, the current UK level: 

.  

1) Grid extension/reinforcement to connect remote W/S systems to load centers, about 2 c/kWh

2) A fleet of quick-reacting power plants to counteract the variable W/S output, on a less-than-minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, about 2 c/kWh 

3) A fleet of power plants to provide electricity during low-W/S periods, and during high-W/S periods, when rotors are feathered and locked, to provide the electricity not produced by W/S systems, to meet demand, about 2 c/kWh.

4) Output curtailments to prevent overloading the grid, i.e., paying owners for not producing what they could have produced, about 1 c/kWh

5) Disassembly at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/hunga-tonga-volcanic-eruption

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/natural-forces-cause-p...

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:54pm

FLOATING OFFSHORE WIND SYSTEMS IN THE IMPOVERISHED STATE OF MAINE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/floating-offshore-wind...

 

World Offshore Wind Capacity Placed on Operation in 2021

During 2021, worldwide offshore wind capacity placed in operation was 17,398 MW, of which China 13,790 MW, and the rest of the world 3,608 MW, of which UK 1,855 MW; Vietnam 643 MW; Denmark 604 MW; Netherlands 402 MW; Taiwan 109 MW

Of the 17,398 MW, just 57.1 MW was floating, about 1/3%

At end of 2021, 50,623 MW was in operation, of which just 123.4 MW was floating, about 1/4%

https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/articles/offshore-wind-market-repo...

 

Despite the meager floating offshore MW in the world, pro-wind politicians, bureaucrats, etc., aided and abetted by the lapdog Main Media and "academia/think tanks", in the impoverished State of Maine, continue to fantasize about building 3,000 MW of 850-ft-tall floating offshore wind turbines by 2040!!

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Maine government bureaucrats, etc., in a world of their own climate-fighting fantasies, want to have about 3,000 MW of floating wind turbines by 2040; a most expensive, totally unrealistic goal, that would further impoverish the already-poor State of Maine for many decades.

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Those bureaucrats, etc., would help fatten the lucrative, 20-y, tax-shelters of mostly out-of-state, multi-millionaire, wind-subsidy chasers, who likely have minimal regard for:

 

1) Impacts on the environment and the fishing and tourist industries of Maine, and

2) Already-overstressed, over-taxed, over-regulated Maine ratepayers and taxpayers, who are trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real-growth economy.

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Those fishery-destroying, 850-ft-tall floaters, with 24/7/365 strobe lights, visible 30 miles from any shore, would cost at least $7,500/ installed kW, or at least $22.5 billion, if built in 2023 (more after 2023)

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NOTE: Norwegian floating offshore cost of $8,523/installed kW in Appendix 1

If Norwegian floating units were used in Maine, the production costs likely would be even higher, because:

 

Almost the entire supply of the Maine projects would be designed and made in Europe, then transported across the Atlantic Ocean, in European specialized ships, then unloaded at a new, $500-million Maine storage/pre-assembly/staging/barge-loading area, then barged to European specialized erection ships for erection of the floating turbines. The financing will be mostly by European pension funds paying pensions to retirees.

 

About 300 Maine people would have jobs during the erection phase

The other erection jobs would be by specialized European people, mostly on cranes and ships

About 200 Maine people would have long-term O&M jobs, using European spare parts, during the 20-y electricity production phase.

https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/news/governor-mills-signs-bill...

 

The Maine woke bureaucrats are falling over each other to prove their “greenness”, offering $millions of this and that for free, but all their primping and preening efforts has resulted in no floating offshore bids from European companies

 

The Maine people have much greater burdens to look forward to for the next 20 years, courtesy of the Governor Mills incompetent, woke bureaucracy that has infested the state government 

The Maine people need to finally wake up, and put an end to the climate scare-mongering, which aims to subjugate and further impoverish them, by voting the entire Democrat woke cabal out and replace it with rational Republicans in 2024

The present course leads to financial disaster for the impoverished State of Maine and its people.

The purposely-kept-ignorant Maine people do not deserve such maltreatment

 

Electricity Cost 

Assume a $750 million, 100 MW project consists of foundations, wind turbines, cabling to shore, and installation at $7,500/kW.

Production 100 MW x 8766 h/y x 0.40, CF = 350,640,000 kWh/y

Amortize bank loan for $525 million, 70% of project, at 6.5%/y for 20 years, 13.396 c/kWh.

Owner return on $225 million, 30% of project, at 10%/y for 20 years, 7.431 c/kWh

Offshore O&M, about 30 miles out to sea, 8 c/kWh.

Supply chain, special ships, and ocean transport, 3 c/kWh

All other items, 4 c/kWh 

Total cost 13.396 + 7.431 + 8 + 3 + 4 = 35.827 c/kWh

Less 50% subsidies (ITC, 5-y depreciation, interest deduction on borrowed funds) 17.913 c/kWh

Owner sells to utility at 17.913 c/kWh

 

NOTE: The above prices compare with the average New England wholesale price of about 5 c/kWh, during the 2009 - 2022 period, 13 years, courtesy of:

 

Gas-fueled CCGT plants, with low-cost, low-CO2, very-low particulate/kWh

Nuclear plants, with low-cost, near-zero CO2, zero particulate/kWh

Hydro plants, with low-cost, near-zero-CO2, zero particulate/kWh

 

Cabling to Shore Plus $Billions for Grid Expansion on Shore 

A high voltage cable would be hanging from each unit, until it reaches bottom, say about 200 to 500 feet. 
The cables would need some type of flexible support system

 

There would be about 5 cables, each connected to sixty, 10 MW wind turbines, making landfall on the Maine shore, for connection to 5 substations (each having a 600 MW capacity, requiring several acres of equipment), then to connect to the New England HV grid, which will need $billions for expansion/reinforcement to transmit electricity to load centers, mostly in southern New England.

 

Floating Offshore a Major Financial Burden on Maine People

Rich Norwegian people can afford to dabble in such expensive demonstration follies (See Appendix 2), but the over-taxed, over-regulated, impoverished Maine people would buckle under such a heavy burden, while trying to make ends meet in the near-zero, real-growth Maine economy. Maine folks need lower energy bills, not higher energy bills.

 

APPENDIX 1

Floating Offshore Wind in Norway

Equinor, a Norwegian company, put in operation, 11 Hywind, floating offshore wind turbines, each 8 MW, for a total of 88 MW, in the North Sea. The wind turbines are supplied by Siemens, a German company

Production will be about 88 x 8766 x 0.5, claimed lifetime capacity factor = 385,704 MWh/y, which is about 35% of the electricity used by 2 nearby Norwegian oil rigs, which cost at least $1.0 billion each.

On an annual basis, the existing diesel and gas-turbine generators on the rigs, designed to provide 100% of the rigs electricity requirements, 24/7/365, will provide only 65%, i.e., the wind turbines have 100% back up.

The generators will counteract the up/down output of the wind turbines, on a less-than-minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365

The generators will provide almost all the electricity during low-wind periods, and 100% during high-wind periods, when rotors are feathered and locked.

The capital cost of the entire project was about 8 billion Norwegian Kroner, or about $730 million, as of August 2023, when all 11 units were placed in operation, or $730 million/88 MW = $8,300/kW. See URL

That cost was much higher than the estimated 5 billion NOK in 2019, i.e., 60% higher

The project is located about 70 miles from Norway, which means minimal transport costs of the entire supply to the erection sites

The project produces electricity at about 42 c/kWh, no subsidies, at about 21 c/kWh, with 50% subsidies 

In Norway, all work associated with oil rigs is very expensive.

Three shifts of workers are on the rigs for 6 weeks, work 60 h/week, and get 6 weeks off with pay, and are paid well over $150,000/y, plus benefits.

If Norwegian units were used in Maine, the production costs would be even higher in Maine, because of the additional cost of transport of almost the entire supply, including specialized ships and cranes, across the Atlantic Ocean, plus

A high voltage cable would be hanging from each unit, until it reaches bottom, say about 200 to 500 feet. 

The cables would need some type of flexible support system
The cables would be combined into several cables to run horizontally to shore, for at least 25 to 30 miles, to several onshore substations, to the New England high voltage grid.

.

https://www.offshore-mag.com/regional-reports/north-sea-europe/arti...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_wind_turbine

Comment by Willem Post on December 24, 2024 at 9:53pm

Penny,

The Maine woke bureaucrats are falling over each other to prove their “greenness”, offering $millions of this and that for free, but all their primping and preening efforts has resulted in no floating offshore bids from European companies

 

The Maine people have much greater burdens to look forward to for the next 20 years, courtesy of the Governor Mills incompetent, woke bureaucracy that has infested the state government 

The Maine people need to finally wake up, and put an end to the climate scare-mongering, which aims to subjugate and further impoverish them, by voting the entire Democrat woke cabal out and replace it with rational Republicans in 2024

The present course leads to financial disaster for the impoverished State of Maine and its people.

The purposely-kept-ignorant Maine people do not deserve such maltreatment

Comment by Penny Gray on December 24, 2024 at 11:00am

How quaint that CT has determined that Maine is at their disposal to carpet with grid scale solar panel projects! 

And very brave of them to build an energy storage project in one of their unidentified abandoned "brownfields".

Sounds like Twilight Zone stuff.  No doubt Gen Mills applauds all of this!

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