Oh dear, oh my,
Our fear mongering Lt. Gov is not quite clear on the Cape Wind project. In this wcvb news piece she shows her wanton ignorance.
Why put something permanently on this beautiful landscape that we can never retrieve, we can never go back and take it away, when we can just wait a few more years…
I was pretty sure that the word “decommissioning” had been bouncing around the project for a while, so a quick Google of “Cape wind” and that big five syllable word found this in a hurry:
- Who will remove the wind turbines at the end of the project?
Cape Wind has volunteered to provide a decommissioning financial instrument that will fund the wind turbines removal down to the seabed at the end of their economic life.
Simple concept. Ms Healey’s vocabulary must stop at four syllable words.
Please share widely!
What does this mean?
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Wait a few more years for what? (Yes, I know, I read the quote — “deep water tur bines” — but by then Cape Wind will be in deep — uh, water…)
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btw, not to touch a raw nerve, but this would be a good way to kill nukulear plants, too — require a “financial instrument” (ooh — those big words!) to clean them up when they’re done!
Reality based?
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Ms. Healey’s comment had nothing to do with the “decommissioning bond,” which BTW is also required whenever a nuclear reactor is contructed.
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Not that you would be familiar with nuclear reactors, since one hasn’t been commissioned since May, 1996. Here are simpler words: The U.S. hasn’t built one since 1996.
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So, if you’re still fighting nuclear energy, you’re tilting against windmills–so to speak.
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Ms. Healey is inline with Senator Kennedy. Check; I think he’s a Democrat, perhaps even progressive or liberal.
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The position is that (now pay attention here), IF, Cape Wind puts up the turbines AND, IF 10 years hence, deep water turbine cogeneration becomes as or more efficient, THEN, it will have been the wrong decision to have pressed ahead with the wind turbines. AND, the decision will at that point be irrevocable BECAUSE the “financial instrument” otherwise known as the “decommissioning bond,” will not have been fully funded so as to dismantle the wind turbine and substitute deep water turbine cogeneration.
As far as I can tell, Cape Wind is in the RED . There is no basis for your theory that deep water turbine cogeneration would ever be more efficient. It would be more expensive. It would require longer undersea transmission cables. The Cape Wind business plan is sound and decommissioning will be fully funded.
I have no electric cogeneration theory. They can build wind mills, saw mills, paper mills or even a statute of Ted Kennedy off the Cape shore for all of my concern.
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I’m simply correcting some of the flaws in your original post.
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Deep water turbines may be an alternative and more efficient energy source. Time will tell.
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To reiterate, IF you build the wind, AND deep turbine becomes an alternative, THEN you can’t undo what’s been done.
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A fully funded decommissioning is a prediction. It is not economically possible to have in place a fully funded decommissioning bond.
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Is the business plan sound? I have no idea. You do?
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Does Ms. Healey use 4 syllable words? At least of often as Senator Kennedy, I’m sure. And they have the same view with respect to Cape Wind.
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Is Cape Wind in the ‘red’ zone (lots of wind)? Sure. It’s the proximity to Hyannis.
Sorry, so you were not theorizing, but predicting that these deep water turbines (500 ft) were going to be so much more efficient than their lesser cousins on the shoals (417 ft) that they would put them out of business. You might look at this bit o’ info on just how much of an advantage that the 20% increase in tower height will produce. It does not look like you get very much for your trouble: Less than a 3% increase in average wind speed that might result in 7 to 10% more power. The question we need to ask is how much more do these deep water turbines cost to install. I would hazard a guess that it is well north of 10% over their friends in Nantucket Sound.