Wind Turbines in Mass

MrDee12345 said:
I'm having a hard time responding without turning this into a raging political rant.

It just doesn't make sense to me. Even if you want more oil production, isn't making the US "energy independent" inclusive of many forms of energy production?
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Three-year old logic. Mean Brits put wind turbines off of my Scottish Golf Course. They are ugly. Wind turbines -- all bad.
 
www.capecodtimes.com

Federal agency steps into lightning strike review of Vineyard Wind turbine

Federal agency to probe a lightning strike on the Vineyard Wind 1 turbine damaged in 2024. Vineyard Wind is also testing its safety lighting system.
www.capecodtimes.com
All of Vineyard Wind's installed turbines are equipped with lightning protection systems, but the system on AW-38 was not operational because of the blade failure that happened on July 13, 2024, according to the agency.
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I feel like all of this news is about a lemon of a turbine, and that's ok with me.
 
vineyardgazette.com

Supreme Court Declines Second Vineyard Wind Petition

Last Monday, the court announced it would not take up the appeal filed by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, keeping a previous ruling on the 62-turbine Vineyard Wind project intact.
vineyardgazette.com vineyardgazette.com
This is the second time this year that the Supreme Court decided to not take up a case around Vineyard Wind, and one of several legal challenges lobbed at the project, the first utility-scale offshore wind project approved in the U.S. The wind farm, which is about 14 miles south of the Island, has an operations headquarters on Beach Road in Vineyard Haven.
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I don't think waiting out the Trump administration is a good strategy. It's great that Hydro-Quebec electricity will be coming down to Massachusetts, but that's not sufficient. If wind-sourced power can't survive without subsidies, then it may be worth taking a second look at bringing in additional gas as an intermediate step.
 
NHMaples said:
I don't think waiting out the Trump administration is a good strategy. It's great that Hydro-Quebec electricity will be coming down to Massachusetts, but that's not sufficient. If wind-sourced power can't survive without subsidies, then it may be worth taking a second look at bringing in additional gas as an intermediate step.
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New York State is the barrier to a new gas pipeline.

Maybe time to do what New York is doing and spin up a new, modern nuke plant.
 
stick n move said:
Wtf
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Feels kind of like a clickbait headline. What did the Healey administration do to put wind on the back burner?

From my reading they've failed to agree to distribution contracts with the utilities precisely because of the uncertainty out of DC. If IRA incentives disappear and there are new fees attached to renewables, it's understandable that they can't lock something in now that will be completely out of whack in a few months. Like many things related to non-coal energy the blame has to go to the current administration. Reminder that these people are trying to TAX renewables directly, adding costs to consumers who are already paying top dollar for energy (especially in New England). The Commonwealth can't agree to energy pricing if there's a 10-20% tax on that energy coming soon.

Being "all of the above" doesn't mean being anti-wind, and I hope it does mean we have nuclear and more gas in the near term. I'd be thrilled if Healey comes out in favor of new nuclear before the next election. NECEC from Canada will be great but we need much more energy in the region and fast. We need more wind, but punting this contract kind of feels like the fiscally responsible move at a time when there could be a huge sea change in renewables pricing.
 
More gas is of no use, though. Two-thirds of the region's energy is gas, already; there's functionally zero coal power left in the region, so there's no higher-carbon-intensity fuel source new gas would be replacing. And we know, at this point, that we can't do nuclear in a cost and time-effective manner (not that it can't be done, just that we--the U.S.--can't do it, though to be honest, the record internationally isn't unambiguous).

Gas seems to be just a substantially worse version of nuclear: it might've been an okay stepping stone from coal decades ago, but now whatever improvement it brings over coal--which is largely dead in New England, anyway--is so marginal, at higher cost, that there's no reason to keep pushing for it. At least nuclear is a zero-carbon energy source; gas is just a ruse.

Building anything but more renewables is only going to exacerbate the situation climatologically--and, as we know that a life cycle LCOE puts solar and wind as the cheapest sources of energy--worsen things financially, as a form of stranded assets in the long run. There's no excusing not building more renewables; Trump and the GOP's crusade against them is entirely ideological (and stupid, to boot).
 
I agree, the stalled pipeline of renewables is massive and there's no excuse to not build it. Unfortunately the most powerful man on earth has decided he is going to do whatever he can to make that situation worse.

Doing nothing or (in the case of some so-called environmental groups) blocking clean hydro power coming down from Canada or suing to stop wind because of whales/fishermen/aesthetics will make things worse and are a massive own-goal. In a climate of extreme scarcity and extraordinarily high energy prices (not to mention New England being one of the worst parts of the country on a per-household carbon basis due to the fuel oil we still use) we cannot just say "I guess we can't do anything". Healey and team should be doing whatever they can to purchase as much new clean energy (hydro and wind) from Canada and promote renewables on state land that doesn't require federal input. Canadian offshore wind is probably the best hope we have to meet our goals in the short term. On the margin though, additional resources including gas, is in my opinion preferable to ending up in an energy scarcity spiral.
 
Justbuildit said:
I agree, the stalled pipeline of renewables is massive and there's no excuse to not build it. Unfortunately the most powerful man on earth has decided he is going to do whatever he can to make that situation worse.

Doing nothing or (in the case of some so-called environmental groups) blocking clean hydro power coming down from Canada or suing to stop wind because of whales/fishermen/aesthetics will make things worse and are a massive own-goal. In a climate of extreme scarcity and extraordinarily high energy prices (not to mention New England being one of the worst parts of the country on a per-household carbon basis due to the fuel oil we still use) we cannot just say "I guess we can't do anything". Healey and team should be doing whatever they can to purchase as much new clean energy (hydro and wind) from Canada and promote renewables on state land that doesn't require federal input. Canadian offshore wind is probably the best hope we have to meet our goals in the short term. On the margin though, additional resources including gas, is in my opinion preferable to ending up in an energy scarcity spiral.
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The problem with Canadian hydro or offshore wind is you have to get the electricity to MA -- and that means new transmission capacity through our northern neighbor states (which they have not been very cooperative about).
 
NECEC construction finally overcame all of its obstacles and it's slated to be operational sometime end of this year or early 2026. There were a huge set of idiotic challenges to overcome and I'm sure the current administration would have blocked new corridors if the litigation was happening now (probably in the name of environmentalism...) but my understanding is we're less than a year from the interconnect in Maine. Although lack of recent construction updates is a little concerning...

Still, clean hydro power from Canada should be online soon! Not sure how much total capacity it can handle if we were to purchase more hydro/wind from Canada.
 
Justbuildit said:
NECEC construction finally overcame all of its obstacles and it's slated to be operational sometime end of this year or early 2026. There were a huge set of idiotic challenges to overcome and I'm sure the current administration would have blocked new corridors if the litigation was happening now (probably in the name of environmentalism...) but my understanding is we're less than a year from the interconnect in Maine. Although lack of recent construction updates is a little concerning...

Still, clean hydro power from Canada should be online soon! Not sure how much total capacity it can handle if we were to purchase more hydro/wind from Canada.
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NECEC is only 1,200 MW of capacity, like a mid-size power plant. We probably need 3-4 NECEC to fill the gap. Planned offshore wind in MA was 5,600 MW by 2027 (now very much in doubt).
 
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