Backlash Builds Over Jersey Shore Wind Farms

wind farm orsted
Wind Farm Blowback

An ocean based ‘forest’ of windmills, just 10 miles off the Jersey coast? Yup. That’s what NJ Gov Murphy wants to accomplish by the year 2030. No matter how much it costs. No matter how effective it may, or may not be.

New Jersey wind farms towering 800 to 1,000 feet in height. Residents, taxpayers and electric customers will help pay for this controversial project that hopes to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

Listen to audio clips from SHEP ON FISHING 3.9.2019. WOND Radio 1400am.

Industrialization of New Jersey beaches and the coastline.

  • Dredging for sand. Essentially, this is undersea strip-mining.
  • Beach outfall pipes are really just giant sewer pipes that funnel street run-off directly into the surf.
  • Beach re-nourishment sounds good in theory, but causes more harm than good.
  • Man-made dunes can be helpful in some cases, but the ‘one-size-fits-all’ dune system in NJ is an expensive flop.
  • Possibility of offshore wind farms. Approx. 500 windmills / turbines from NY to Cape May.

Wind farm electricity will affect migration patterns of New Jersey marine life.

Robin Scott of Ray Scott’s Dock in Margate: There will no flounder. They’ll migrate away from NJ. These offshore wind farms will annihilate the fishery. Where are the environmentalists? California has land-based windmills. Very successful. Why not in NJ?

Listener Feedback: People are selling their fishing gear. The fish are going further off shore to escape the noise and destruction of their habitat. Windmills will destroy more coastal habitat.

orsted wind farms new jersey atlantic city margate
Wind Farm Blowback

Offshore wind farms need to be in relatively shallow water, installed at water depths of 60 to 90 feet.

Bill Shillingford, aka ‘Bucktail Willie’: All 3 companies (like ORSTED) are from Europe. Taking advantage of U.S. tax dollars. They can’t build anymore windmills over there? Gov Murphy is making NJ, the California of the east coast.

NJ DEP: spending more time focused on wind energy….instead of worrying about the South Jersey fish stocks.

Congressman Jeff Van Drew, Senator Chris Brown, Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo and others, need to seriously tackle this looming problem.

wind farm new jersey orsted
Wind Farm Forest

Offshore New Jersey wind turbines have shortcomings.

  • Substantial price hikes for electricity customers. All taxpayers will contribute to subsidy & tax credits.
  • Hazard to marine / bird wildlife. Danger to fishery migration patterns.
  • No proven business model.
  • Limited or no impact studies so far.
  • Placing turbines offshore creates visual pollution too. Spoiling the view of those on the beaches and in pleasure boats. Millions of tourists that flock to NJ beaches would be affected.
  • Ongoing maintenance costs
  • Still need fossil fuel back-ups

Electro-magnetic currents from undersea wind farm cables, will harm shipping lanes and migration patterns.

The installation, operation, and maintenance costs are much higher for offshore wind turbines, since more resources and infrastructures are needed to install and maintain a wind turbine at sea. The sea is a much more hostile environment than land, leading to shortened turbine life cycles and a greater need for maintenance.

Offshore wind farms are roughly twice as expensive as land-based ones.

Subsidized by potentially billions of dollars from electric customers in New Jersey. That’s a huge commitment to offshore wind that will spike already high energy costs in a state which traditionally ranks among the top ten for energy bills.

“We are talking about large impacts on ratepayers,’’ said Dennis Hart, executive director of the Chemistry Industry Council of New Jersey, referring to the costs of subsidizing the offshore-wind projects under a decade-old law signed by former Gov. Chris Christie

NJ ratepayers will subsidize the development of the wind farms built off the coast by a surcharge on customers’ monthly bills.

One wind-farm proposal wanted to build turbines about eight miles off the coast of Atlantic City.

The cost of developing offshore wind projects will top $1 billion.

The NJ BPU board is expected to decide on what projects, if any, move forward this spring, a step that needs to be taken if the proposals are to qualify for a lucrative federal tax credit that’s due to expire by the end of 2019.

Even with the advances made in the economics of offshore wind, the industry will still need electricity customers to prop it up.

NJ state regulators keeping mum about how much extra you will pay for building and managing this experiment.

Ratepayers would be subsidizing this project with significant technical risks. What are NJ ratepayers getting in return for such a subsidy? Former Gov. Chris Christie viewed windfarms as too expensive for utility customers, who already pay very high energy bills.

The BPU wants ratepayers to subsidize offshore wind along the coast.

——————————————————-

orsted atlantic city wind
ORSTED INVADES AC

Proposals were submitted by Ørsted US Offshore Wind, Equinor, and EDF Renewables North America/Shell New Energies.

  • Orsted is one of the European companies looking for the huge, NJ taxpayer handout.
  • ORSTED. Danish offshore wind company. Ørsted has limited US experience.
  • Ørsted must repair up to 2,000 wind turbine blades. They wear down after just a few years at sea.
  • Every wind park needs to be backed 100% by either coal or nuclear. This doubles energy costs.
  • Orsted needs to connect its turbines to the on-shore energy grid.

Orsted submitted a bid in December to the state Board of Public Utilities for ratepayer subsidies to fund its project.

NJ State is now reviewing 3 offshore wind applications to decide which will get taxpayer subsidies. The decision must be made by July 2019.

Protect the environment and ratepayers, both will shoulder the burden of paying for offshore wind energy development

2 thoughts on “Backlash Builds Over Jersey Shore Wind Farms”

  1. I read it was really 340 million for the turbines off block island. cost over runs.They could have ran a natural gas line from rhode island for 20 miles to block island to produce electricity for block island. rhode island uses natural gas to produce their electric. They also spend 40 million dollars to build a power cable for Rhode Island plus some fiber optics to block island for high speed internet and to bring wind powered electric to Rhode Island and to also power Block Island when the wind was not blowing or is blowing to hard and the wind turbines have to shut down.

  2. I have been a NJ Dive boat Captain 25years. This area known as Hurricane Alley, Approaches to NY harbor is one on the most heavily ship and recreational trafficked areas on the East Coast! To think anything man made will last in this salty, turbulent area is pure Folley! Where is the long term Environmental Impact statement ? Many species of Marine life both Mammal, fish,turtle ande bird migrate through this area. The Cost? Payback? All a Gamble perrhaps leading to an underwater junkyard in twenty years. Thisneeds allot more scientific research and not a quick RUSH TO Supposed POLITICAL FAME!!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.