Offshore Wind Promoters Paving the Road to Energy Hell

The stampede to build offshore wind turbines to replace fossil fuel generation is loaded with concerns that have not been thought through or been resolved.

Consider the following:

1. There is no climate crisis: thousands of scientists and meteorologists around the world have published studies that local extreme events are caused by cyclical weather (decades, centuries, millennia): solar activity, ocean cycles, cosmic ray intensity, volcanic activity (surface and undersea), orbital cycles and planetary cycles to name some. CO2 is NOT causing global warming. In fact, its role is trivial and it is enabling record plant, forest and crop production. Sea level rise is often due to land subsidence (sinking).  There is record polar ice, polar bears are flourishing, and the earth has cooled over the last decade.  Coral reefs are fine and Pacific Islands are increasing in area.  UN IPCC doom and gloom reports have been crying for decades that the end of the planet is here; the reports use faulty input data, have extreme projections divorced from reality, and are written by people with political  and career agenda.
2. The call to close reliable, cost-effective fossil and nuclear power plants will lead to blackouts and higher costs.  Wind and solar power have a 25% maximum nameplate capacity average output. The sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.  The wind turbines need 10 times more steel, concrete and rare earths (foreign sourced) than conventional power. Mining and refining the massive amounts of copper, aluminum, rare earths and steel disrupts the environment and emits many times more CO2 than the manufacture of conventional generation. They shut down in weather extremes (Texas and N. Carolina) and have a significantly shorter life in the harsh marine environment.  End-of-life disposal of giant turbine blades is expensive and difficult.
3. Thousands of miles of redundant new transmission cables and towers must be built (increasing pollution emissions) and billions spent in backup battery power when the unreliables (renewable wind and solar) fail.  Several battery storage facilities have ignited in unquenchable, toxic fires.  Fossil plants must be constantly running anyway for spinning reserves when unreliable wind and solar fail.  Starting and stopping loads increases emissions and costs in the fossil-fueled generators.
4. The recent mass deaths of whales and dolphins from New England to Mid-Atlantic is directly caused by the offshore wind construction. Seismic surveys, machine gun sonar, pile driving, blasting and other construction sounds are greatly amplified and transmitted underwater to mammals such as whales and dolphins.  They become deaf, have nervous system infections and get disoriented which facilitate beaching and ship collisions.
5. The massive turbines create subsonic sounds which are vastly amplified via underwater transmission and injure whales’ and dolphins’ hearing.
6. The huge turbine blades kill hundreds thousands of sea and land birds, including Bald Eagles and bats each year.
7. The turbine blades weighing hundreds of tons, are not recyclable and pose a massive disposal problem.
8. Wind and solar require hundreds of times more seabed and land area than the equivalent fossil generation. This area is forever damaged for natural purposes like farming, forests, pastures, fields, nature environments and fishing.
9. Europe and the UK, especially Germany, have embraced wind and solar for years. The power delivery has been so poor that they are reopening many coal and nuclear power plants. The price of electricity has increased 600% rendering Europe’s industry non-competitive and many factories have shuttered and relocated.
10. If unreliables (wind and solar power) were so good, they would not need hundreds of billions of taxpayer subsidy dollars shoved into foreign and domestic companies.
11. With Russia, China, India and other countries opening hundreds of fossil fuel and nuclear plants, a zero-emission New York State will have NO measurable effect on global pollution.
12. The Governor’s plan to electrify heating, cooking and vehicles in NYS will require quantities of electricity and backup storage that will be impossible to obtain and afford.  Europe has tried it resulting in electricity costs so high and unreliable that businesses and manufacturing have closed and many must choose between heating and buying food. Before our leaders see the disaster they caused, we can only work toward reversing this coming disaster.
13. Fossil and nuclear power plants must remain open and running (spinning reserves) to plug the frequent gaps in solar and wind generation.  There is little or no emissions reduction and rates shoot up to pay for both systems of generation.
14. The Unreliables (wind and solar) industry, foreign and domestic, have spent millions lobbying for these projects. Gore, Kerry, Bloomberg, Gates and others have made billions trading carbon credits and investing in “green” companies. Foreign and domestic wind and solar companies are making a windfall in government taxpayer subsidies. They will get rich while we burn candles.
15. Wind and solar have reduced to zero output in temperature and weather extremes.  Wind turbines fail and have shorter than predicted life.

To summarize, there’s no CO2 or climate crisis; it’s cyclical weather-solar-oceanic-planetary cycles.  Earth was much warmer in the past with many times more CO2 which coincided with the greatest expansion of life and diversity in history.

Solar and wind generation use many times more metals, rare earths, and cement, the mining of and fabrication of which emit far greater CO2 and land, forest and seabed destruction than fossil and nuclear generation, without child labor used in obtaining renewable elements.

Since solar and wind operate at about 20% nameplate capacity, battery backup (with explosive fire hazards) costing trillions is needed and/or spinning reserves of conventional generation, resulting in huge cost increases.

The unprecedented mass killing of sea mammals along the East Coast coincides with the construction of wind turbines by the sonar and pile driving sounds, amplified 50X underwater, deafening and disorienting whales and porpoises causing beaching, ship collisions and sickness.

Hundreds of thousands of birds are killed each year by wind turbines.

Wind and solar components are mostly non-recyclable and toxic waste.

All US efforts at net zero are void with Russia, China, India and other countries opening fossil and nuclear plants at record rates.  They appreciate reliable, clean, cost-effective power.

Europe tried net zero and is reversing it by ocean drilling, opening and re-opening fossil and nuclear generation.

Moving forward, how can the Gordian Knot of obtaining clean, reliable, accessible, minimally intrusive, cost-effective electricity for the survival and prosperity of civilization be solved?  Repowering existing gas and oil power plants with state-of-the-art technology, and modular nuclear power.  

Twenty years ago Dr. Matt Cordero, dean of the Center for Management Analysis, CW Post College on LI, NY, penned a study on this subject. It can be found here.  A life-long utility expert, manager and engineer, he determined that repowering existing, antiquated fossil-fueled power stations would result in a minimum of doubling the output, cutting costs and reducing pollution over 90% at existing sites.  

Instead of spending trillions of taxpayer dollars on unreliable, inconsistent wind, solar, and hazardous battery backup, repowering is a market solution needing no subsidies because it meets market requirements with minimal downsides and maximum benefits.

Consider: no supply line bottlenecks of rare metals and materials, no child labor involved, 90+% capacity and reliability, use existing real estate at a fraction of wind and solar requirements, use existing infrastructure and transmission (higher capacity may be needed), no reliance on hostile foreign countries, eliminate the trillions needed in battery backup and storage (with their unextinguishable fires and toxic emissions), decades-longer life than renewables, more durable than renewables (hurricane, salt water, temperature- tolerant, unaffected by clouds and surface dirt buildup,  and hail-resistant), copious domestic fuel available, operated by US companies.

Entities profiting by promoting renewables are happy to pave the road to hell. Superior solutions exist backed by solid facts.  We ignore them at our peril.