of Biden Administration Approval was given earlier this month for the construction of 195 wind turbines, the closest of which is nine miles offshore to the south. New Jersey It crashed into the coastline, causing unrest among residents of coastal towns.
The Biden Administration and others environment Activist groups have touted the Atlantic Shores South project, nearly nine years in the making, as a new milestone in green energy extraction in the country, but a former U.S. Department of Energy engineer has warned that not only is the project harmful to tourism and marine ecosystems, it could actually increase Energy costs will rise by 80% over the next 20 years.
of company The company behind the project, Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, LLC (Atlantic Shores), has signed three different lease agreements with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management covering more than 400 square miles. Two separate projects are planned, with two lease areas located off the Jersey Shore between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light and the third lease area in an area of the Atlantic Ocean known as the Bight.
According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, “Projects 1 and 2 are expected to produce up to 2,800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power approximately 1 million homes with clean, renewable energy.”
Atlantic Shores South says the project will bring $1.9 billion in economic benefits to the Garden State. analysis A study by Edward P. O’Donnell of WhiteStrand Consulting found that electricity bills would rise significantly for consumers across the state, from residents to commercial and industrial facilities.
“Offshore wind would not be economically viable without significant subsidies in the form of federal tax credits and guaranteed above-market prices for the electricity generated,” the analysis states. “The former would be a cost passed on to U.S. taxpayers, and the latter would be borne by New Jersey electric ratepayers. Moreover, significant investments would be required to upgrade and expand the state’s electric transmission system to accommodate the transmission of large amounts of offshore wind power into and through New Jersey.”
Construction on Project 1 is expected to begin in 2024 with first electricity delivered in 2027, bringing the Biden administration one step closer to its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore energy by 2030 and drawing praise from environmental groups such as the Sierra Club.
“We are proud that New Jersey is moving away from polluting fossil fuels and toward the development of renewable energy and offshore wind,” Anjuli Ramos Busot, president of the Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter, said in a statement. “Momentum for offshore wind in New Jersey continues to grow as we continue to lead the transition to a cleaner, greener future for our communities.”
The company touts that Project 1 alone will reduce New Jersey’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons each year, create approximately 50,000 jobs, generate a total economic impact of $1.9 billion, and produce enough clean energy to power 700,000 homes.
But Dr. Bob Stern, a former U.S. Department of Energy engineer who has lived on Long Beach Island for 25 years, said the statistics on how many homes these turbines will power are very misleading.
“It’s an intermittent source of power,” Stern said. “These statements are carefully crafted, and it’s like seeing a statement that says, ‘This project has the potential to power 10,000 homes,’ giving people the impression that this project alone can power all of those homes. That’s not true. The estimates are that it only works 40 percent of the time. So if you’re thinking about powering homes year-round, this project alone can’t do that.”
Even Orsted, the renewable energy sustainability company. state Offshore wind power generation uses other energy sources, e.g. Onshore WindSustainable biomass, Solar power generation, large-scale storage batteriesIt’s to keep the power grid balanced and ensure the lights stay on.”
Orsted also said that if the wind is too strong, offshore wind turbines are only 1% effective.
In his analysis, O’Donnell considered New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s plan to add 11,000 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2040. That would mean federal investment tax subsidies totaling more than $20 billion, but it’s a pittance compared with the costs of expanding the generation and transmission system to move all that energy from the coast to the PJM grid.
“These ratepayer subsidies would exceed $100 billion over 20 years and would raise electricity rates for residential, commercial and industrial customers by 55 percent, 70 percent and 85 percent, respectively,” the report said.
To put this in perspective, ratepayers paying 16 cents/kwhr would see their price double to more than 32 cents/kwhr, an increase of $1,000 on their annual bill by 2047. This will affect consumers across the state.
For Stern, seeing his electricity bill go up is a concern, but he’s also worried about how the green energy project will affect marine animals like whales.
“The underwater noise that comes from all of these steps, the vessel surveys that use noisemakers to characterize the seabed, the noise from driving piles into the foundations, and then finally the operation of these huge structures generates a lot of underwater noise,” Stern said. “We’ve studied this thoroughly, and we believe this would be very harmful to whales and dolphins, particularly the whales that have to migrate to New Jersey to get to their destination.”
But Stern said the situation would be made worse by the fact that commercial, military and fishing vessels would not be allowed to sail within the wind farm site.
“So they end up being squeezed into these narrow passageways,” Stern said, “and it turns out that the passageways that they’re being squeezed into also happen to be whale migration passageways, so not only is it creating a danger for the whales, it’s also creating a danger for ships.”
In an environmental review by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency Admitted The closure of the southern Atlantic coast would have a major impact on North Atlantic blue whales, of which there are fewer than 400 left in the wild.
Stern, who organized the Save Long Beach Island campaign to oppose the project, said the turbines, located just a few miles off shore, are a major eyesore and there are concerns among local residents that they could hurt tourism.
The Long Beach Island Chamber of Commerce said in an email that it opposes the project but did not want to comment.
“What are we doing this for?” Stern said. “Some people say we have to do this because of climate change, but even UN agency documents say the impact on climate change is negligible because there are much bigger movements happening in other parts of the world.”
Stern said he and his colleagues at Save Long Island Beach aren’t giving up and plan to pursue legal action.
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“This is a waste of energy,” Stern said. “Unfortunately, it’s also a dangerous waste, and I think the country will regret this.”
of Washington Examiner The Bureau of Marine Management and the Atlantic Coast Bureau have been contacted for comment.
