Government Lacks Hurricane Certification of Ocean Wind Turbines

Can an ocean wind turbine survive a major hurricane?  History shows probably not.

 
Federal, state, and local regulations govern many aspects of land-based wind energy development but no government agency is regulating the certification or structural integrity of ocean wind turbines for catastrophic hurricane damage. 
 
In January of 2019, BOEM, Bureau of Ocean Management decided to establish a Gulf of Maine Task Force, which is composed of federal officials and elected Tribal, state, and local officials from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
 
Offshore wind development is planned for the East Coast from Maine to North Carolina. 
 
The question is what happens to an ocean wind turbine when the combination of high winds and waves twists in the weather? What happens to the blades and foundations?
 
Hurricanes have already caused catastrophic damage to land-based wind turbines. 
 
Hurricane María a Category 4 hurricane made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. The wind farm in Punta Lima had almost every turbine damaged and many completely destroyed.
 
Hurricane Bob was one of the costliest hurricanes in New England history. On August 18, 1991, the center of Bob passed 35 miles off the coast of North Carolina at 140 miles per hour about the same as Hurricane Maria. Monday, August 19 Hurricane Bob came through Cape Cod, with sustained winds averaging 96 to 100 miles per hour and gusts reaching as high as 125 mph. What would have happened to a wind farm off the coast today? 
 
In September of 2019 Hurricane Dorian, Category 5 hit the Bahamas with sustained wind speeds of 185 miles with wind gusts of over 220 miles per hour. What would happen today if a storm of this magnitude came up the coast into proposed wind farms?
 
The US Energy Department is developing tools to help wind system designers lower the risk for offshore wind turbine systems located in extreme weather areas. What is the tool or backup plan if 3000 megawatts of wind power gets knocked out in one hurricane?
 
Hurricanes and the wind turbine damage they can cause from past experiences are easy to predict. 
 
A New England hurricane not uncommon is a tropical cyclone originating in the Atlantic Ocean that affects the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in the United States.
 
The United States set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, enough to provide electricity to 10 million homes without strict government structural integrity regulations. 
 
The United States Congress needs to set the wind turbine certification and/or structural integrity standards for hurricanes.

Views: 170

Comment

You need to be a member of Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine to add comments!

Join Citizens' Task Force on Wind Power - Maine

Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on June 29, 2022 at 1:55pm

Hurricane risk is real for offshore wind
My regular readers know that I have been fussing about the threat of hurricanes destroying proposed Atlantic coast offshore wind arrays. The issue arises because the offshore wind industry is based in Europe, which does not get hurricanes. My focus has been Dominion’s massive project off Virginia, but the whole East Coast is hurricane alley.

Now I have found some research that actually quantifies the threat and it is very real. It looks like wind generators will have to be redesigned specifically to withstand hurricanes. In fact that work is underway. In the meantime we should not be building conventional offshore wind towers.
Weblink for the full article:
https://www.cfact.org/2022/06/24/hurricane-risk-is-real-for-offshor...

Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain on June 29, 2022 at 1:45pm

All Eyes on SCOTUS: Supreme Court to Issue Climate Endangerment Finding Ruling – To Decide if EPA has authority to regulate CO2 or Congress
https://www.climatedepot.com/2022/06/29/all-eyes-on-scotus-supreme-...

 

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/

Not yet a member?

Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

 -- Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi 

Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!

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/

© 2024   Created by Webmaster.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service