Off Shore Wind Power

The Friday April 25 issue of the Inquirer has an article on the NJ Board of Public Utilities (BPU) rejecting a proposal for erecting wind turbines off the coast of new Jersey.  The article discusses a major issue over federal subsidies.  There are several players in the proposal: 1) Fishermen’s Energy - the energy provider, 2) their economic backer and equipment supplier, a Chinese company, and the 3) BPU.  Fishermen’s believes federal subsidies and grants are required and sufficient to provide `affordable’ wind power cost to NJ residents. The BPU believes the subsidies and grants are insufficient and will raise electricity costs in NJ.

This disagreement identifies a major concern of wind turbine generated electricity; it doesn’t make economic sense.  No actual costs are provided in the article but both sides agree federal subsidies and grants are essential to make the cost `affordable’ to New Jersey consumers.

Who will pay for these federal subsidies and grants? All other US tax payers! Just as New Jersey taxpayers pay subsides for wind power throughout the country.

Some background science. The proposed off shore wind farm has a nameplate power (rated power) of 25 Megawatts. Capacity is the measure of a wind turbine available power and this vital measure is ignored. As described in a previous blog, capacity and nameplate power are different.  Offshore wind power may have higher capacity ratings than land based power, but the wind is still intermittent.

Even at 100% capacity, wind power fails to produce affordable electricity without subsidies to mask the actual cost.  Until wind power can be generated at comparable cost to other energy sources, wind power is an ideological driven energy source not an economic one.