Offshore Wind Farms

In this quite lucid and compelling video on offshore wind farms, The Sierra Club points out the numerous benefits of this technology. Until I watched it, I was unaware that turbines could be 12 miles offshore, and that the continental shelf off the eastern US was shallow enough such that the units could be anchored to the ocean floor that far from land. In my mind, this makes a compelling case. Of course, the issue is cost, which the video does not mention.

Sierra spokeperson Ivy Main, the renewable energy chair for the club’s Virginia chapter does an excellent job in contrasting this solution with dirty power sources like coal, but does so in a calm, measured, and professional tone.  She also points out that this idea does not require the transmission of large amount of power over thousands of miles, which, of course, is a requirement of the solution I favor, solar thermal. However, with high voltage direct current (HVDC), which I also favor, there is relatively little power loss in such a scenario.

Again, it is my fondest wish that we can somehow put politics aside, conduct a fair-minded study of all the options that are available to us as a nation, and make the right decision. There are, of course, numerous reasons that this is not happening — the most obvious of which, as I’ve covered many times, is the power of the interests that are working to prevent it.

But here’s another wrinkle: we seem to be working within the paradigm that a great number of different technologies are all going to be part of the long-term solution, and that anyone who holds a contrary position is an extremist. Frankly, I’ve never understood that. I liken this “macro” decision to the “micro” decision that I would make if I were going to take our farm off the grid. Would I have some array of wind turbines, solar panels, and geothermal heat pumps? Probably not. I’d do a study, and try to remove the biases of the salespeople.  Then I’d adopt the technology that made the most sense and implement it in sufficient quantity to fulfill my needs.

I really fail to see where this analogy breaks down. There must be a single best solution. It’s my hope that we can identify it and get it done.