Turbine Blade Testing Underway Ahead of Massachusetts' 1st Wind Farm

Turbine Blade Testing Underway
Ahead of
Massachusetts' 1st Wind Farm

Construction is set to begin on Vineyard Wind, located south of Martha's Vineyard, later this year

By Michael Page Published Apr 23, 2019

In just a few months, construction begins on the first offshore wind farm in Massachusetts waters.

And as the push for green energy continues, so does turbine blade testing in Boston.

“So what you’re seeing here is fatigue test,” Rahul Yarala says, as he points to massive blades bouncing up and down, and swaying side to side, in a huge building along the Mystic River in Charlestown. “We do structural testing of wind turbine blades.”

The Wind Technology Testing Center where Yarala works is the only one of its kind in the country. “We use hydraulic systems to simulate what happens in the field,” Yarala explains.

For six months at a time, crews make sure massive land-based turbine blades can withstand 160 mph winds.

“The team here is looking to bring in some blades specifically designed for offshore wind within the next 6 months or so,” Steve Pike says.

Pike is the CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), which runs the facility.

“What MassCEC has been doing is really working to lay the ground work for offshore wind in Massachusetts over the last 10 years.”

Construction is set to begin on Vineyard Wind, the state’s first offshore project, located south of the island, later this year.

“To date the utilities have purchased 800 MW of offshore wind, which is enough to power roughly 400,000 homes in the commonwealth,” Pike adds.

A short distance away, the first in the nation Block Island wind farm is much smaller, and faced criticism over its cost.

Pike says that’s not a worry here.

“This contract would actually save ratepayers money over time. Over the 20 year life of the contract rate payers would not be paying more than they would for natural gas or oil and the like. Lowering the cost of energy over time; that is really going to be the game changer here in the northeast,” he says.

And this is just the start.

“You could see anywhere from 5,000 MW to 10,000 MW built off of the coast of Massachusetts south of Martha’s vineyard and Nantucket,” Pike predicts.

Areas off the North Shore, Seacoast of New Hampshire, and Maine, are also being looked at.

MassCEC adds that the state has a ways to go to meet its 2050 climate goals.

To meet the goals, the state is also working on new methods of storing renewable energy, for use when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.

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

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(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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