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How will wind turbines help us right now?
06/23/08
From here
(CNN) -- A contract to build what is being called the nation's first offshore field of wind turbines was announced Monday between a Delaware utility company and a firm that is to build the generators off the Atlantic coast.
Officials from Delmarva Power and Bluewater Wind announced details of the contract at a news conference Monday in Newark, Delaware.
Bluewater spokesman Jim Lanard said the power company will get about 16 percent of its electricity from a field of 150 wind turbines, anchored in the seafloor about a dozen miles off Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
The contract with Delmarva would use less than half the projected generating capacity the energy park is expected to have when completed. The rest would be sold to other customers.
The project's cost is estimated at $1.6 billion, according to a project official with Bluewater.
The offshore site is expected to be operational within four years, but the timing depends on how quickly regulatory agencies can review and approve the construction project.
The fact is that anything we do: nuclear, solar, drilling, or turbines won't help us immediately, a charge leveled against drilling by Obama and Democrats. In fact, any movement towards energy independence will lower energy prices as energy producers like Saudi Arabia increase production to avoid an exodus from its products, and speculation moderates.
6 comments
Wind power will not save the world. It will not even curb the pending energy crisis. But, I say: "Why not?" When it comes to alternative energy solutions then the answer should always be yes. The more possibilities tried the more innovations that will come. The human race is the one that survives through adaptation and innovation. 
Are these people idiots? Don't they realize that the OCEAN IS UNSTABLE? Besides the fact that powerful storms occur yearly, global warming is causing the oceans levels to rise.I know science has made some progress, but no one can overcome Mother Nature.
Ocean levels are rising... but most scientists say the most likely scenario is ~1 foot rise in ocean levels. Does anyone know what happened the last time the ice caps melted? Europe got colder, so people colonized the United States. I don't recall too many fossil fuel plants back then, so apparently 'Mother Nature' tends to do things regardless of 'human interference'. Wind is a great way to produce electricity domestically without the worry of depleting a finitre resource. There is not reason that wind, solar, and geothermal couldn't make up to 20% of our nation's energy needs with Nuclear, hydro, natural gas, and even coal gasification plants making up the rest.
How will wind turbines help us right now?We have to start sometime, somewhere.
And given the amount of fossil-fuel based electricity production we use, why not do this?
Short-sightedness is self-defeating and expecting quick fixes that last, is naive.
During peak summer months, it will definitely help the Delaware grid. Brownouts and blackouts are not fun.
This farm would power ~50,000 homes. That's a good thing. And as the article states, the production cost/kW-h is locked in.
To semarlo2 >> I'm sure NONE of the involved engineers have any idea that oceans are rough.
When a storm damages a wind powered turbine, it doesn't spew oil all over the coastline. 
Ewwwww! Oil. 
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