Massachusetts Offshore Wind Projects Imploding

Massachusetts had a goal of 2,000 megawatts of wind energy installed in the state by 2020.  Noise complaints in almost every community lead to nuisance lawsuits against wind turbines. The result is a massive failure of the land-based agenda costing taxpayers millions in legal fees and after twenty years a little over 100 megawatts of land-based wind power. The program undoubtedly was a catastrophic failure in which state officials turned the page taking no responsibility.
.
Massachusetts is going forward now with an offshore flawed ocean wind cable plan. The ocean plans appear again to be headed in the same downhill direction as the land-based projects. 
.
Two years ago bids were awarded to multiple offshore wind LLCs, Limited Liability Companies. The companies collectively had a choice of two options for the electric transmission of power from the ocean to the major cities using the power.  Those choices are first the least expensive "generator lead line” approach and second the more expensive “planned” approach. 
.
The offshore wind LLCs selected the least expensive option the "generator lead line.” As each of the five offshore wind companies builds sections of their project they run their own sets of submarine cables to whatever land location to get to grid transformer locations along the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. There could be up to 15 community landings that may require placing sets of 220,000 high voltage direct current buried under parks, and residential zoned locations including environmental justice communities and there are no health studies of high voltage direct current cables in the United States as this type of voltage is not used. This method will undoubtedly lead to multiple lawsuits similar to failed land-based projects.
.
The "planned" approach requires four large ocean submarine cables from an offshore wind platform 30 miles out to sea to locations Boston, Fall River Massachusetts, Providence RI, and Hartford Connecticut. As each wind company adds to its project they simply hook up to the wind platform negating the need for running up to 30 cables onshore.
.
This planned approach avoids residential vacation destinations and heavily congested residential neighborhoods. Yet one offshore wind company is asking the Massachusetts legislature to enact Article 97 to bypass the Falmouth, Massachusetts wind turbine bylaws to place their cables through the town. Article 97 requires that there are no other options. The wind company selected and optioned for the "generator lead line" had they optioned for the "planned" approach there would be no need for any cables into Falmouth. Only the courts could determine the outcome of this scenario.
.
Now the bad news. The offshore wind LLCs through a bidding process won the rights to build in the locations 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The wind companies negotiated with various electric companies to sell their power at seven cents a kilowatt hour to the power companies. The PPA, power purchase agreement contracts were approved by the Massachusetts Attorney General and recently by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities. 
.
The offshore wind companies at the last minute want a do-over because of inflation, supply chain issues, and the war in Ukraine. The electric utility companies are demanding that MassDPU uphold the contracts approved in full by the state.
.
The question now is who will finance a project selling electricity for seven cents per kilowatt hour if the projects are not built and have no approved land routes to get to the electrical grid?   
.
Current proposed  locations ;
 
Wianno in the Osterville section of Barnstable, Massachusetts a vacation destination.
 
Falmouth Heights Beach section in Falmouth, Massachusetts a vacation destination.
 
Boyds Lane Portsmouth, Rhode Island manufactures electronic equipment, boat building, and tourism.

 

Views: 222

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 Willem Post on January 1, 2023 at 4:46pm

The cost will be upwards of 8.5 c/kWh for the first year, with escalation at at least 4%/y thereafter for at least 20 years, because of Biden’s deficit spending, high inflation, shipping OUR  oil, nat gas and coal to Europe, etc., increased labor rates, lack of availability of specialized ships, increased interest rates, increased cost of energy, increased cost of rare metals, project-delaying supply chain disruptions, which increase costs, and increased  litigation 

Make sure you find out about the annual escalation!! It is a ball buster to further enrich the elites and impoverish all others in New England

 

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