{"id":7169,"date":"2022-02-05T05:48:57","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T05:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7169"},"modified":"2022-02-05T05:48:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T05:48:57","slug":"bidens-offshore-wind-plan-is-also-a-jobs-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=7169","title":{"rendered":"Biden\u2019s offshore wind plan is also a jobs plan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“what\u2019s really worth paying attention to are Biden\u2019s goals for offshore wind power, which is an important energy source for regions like the northeastern US that lack the space and ample sunlight that solar energy depends on. It\u2019s here that the new plan goes from mundane to ambitious, and it may be an indicator of how the administration intends to address issues related to climate change, energy, and jobs at the same time.”
…
“As of today, the US has only seven offshore wind turbines \u2014 five in a wind farm off<\/a> Rhode Island\u2019s Block Island, and two more set up as tests in Virginia. But on February 23, the federal government will auction<\/a> offshore wind leases to utilities or offshore wind energy developers in an ocean region called the New York Bight, off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. The holders of those leases will then be able to set up wind farms in the area that generate up to 7 gigawatts of energy \u2014 enough to power about 2 million homes \u2014 which would require 600 to 700turbines.”   
…
“Those 600 or 700 wind turbines will require people to build turbine components, ship them out to sea, and maintain them once they\u2019re set up. To make that happen, the White House and Transportation Department are aiming to create nearly 80,000 offshore wind-related jobs by 2030 by investing in ports across the Eastern Seaboard \u2014 some as far inland as Albany, New York, from where turbine parts will be shipped down the Hudson River to the New York Bight.”
…
“The turbines, fishers say<\/a>, could negatively affect marine life. They\u2019re also concerned that turbine towers may interfere with radar, while no-sail safety zones in the vicinity of turbines may affect their ability to reach fishing areas. The long-term impacts of wind turbines on marine life still aren\u2019t clear, but a study<\/a> in Europe\u2019s North Sea showed turbine bases may act as artificial reefs for animals like mussels. Late last year, the Energy Department awarded<\/a> Duke University a $7.5 million grant to study offshore wind\u2019s impact on marine life, the results of which should provide a fuller picture of how turbines might affect fisheries. In the meantime, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is looking for workarounds, which is why the sale notice<\/a> for the New York Bight includes provisions aimed at helping fishers, such as 2.8-mile-wide transit lanes for fishing vessels.”   
…
“The challenges don\u2019t end there: Even if the wind turbines do get built, and even if their potential impacts on marine life are minimized, there has to be somewhere for the energy they produce to go. Transmission lines \u2014 those high-voltage cables you see strung up on steel struts across vast stretches of the country \u2014 are usually built by regional transmission organizations, and Jacobs says there might not be enough of them to carry all the energy produced by those new turbines.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is exactly the issue Germany faced in 2020, when a lack of transmission capacity<\/a> in Northern Germany meant the region had to send some of its wind power to neighboring countries instead. \u201cThey had a whole lot of offshore wind arrive at the beach,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cAnd then the German utility industry said, \u2018Oh, we hadn\u2019t really prepared for this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration seems to want to avoid having a similar situation happen in the United States. That\u2019s why the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes funding for transmission lines, and the administration announced the Energy Department is launching an initiative called Building a Better Grid that will act as a sort of central planning authority for grid improvements. But it\u2019s unclear if that transmission buildout will happen by the time offshore wind gets up and running in the New York Bight \u2014 and the administration makes no mention of distribution lines, or the lower-voltage wires that bring electricity to homes and businesses. Those are usually built in the US by local utilities, explained Kyri Baker, assistant professor of engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, and they\u2019re often only replaced once they become completely inoperable.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/recode\/22891149\/bidens-clean-energy-offshore-wind-jobs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“what\u2019s really worth paying attention to are Biden\u2019s goals for offshore wind power, which is an important energy source for regions like the northeastern US that lack the space and ample sunlight that solar energy depends on. It\u2019s here that the new plan goes from mundane to ambitious, and it may be an indicator of how the administration intends to address issues related to climate change, energy, and jobs at the same time.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“As of today, the US has only seven offshore wind turbines \u2014 five in a wind farm off Rhode Island\u2019s Block Island, and two more set up as tests in Virginia. But on February 23, the federal government will auction offshore wind leases to utilities or offshore wind energy developers in an ocean region called the New York Bight, off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. The holders of those leases will then be able to set up wind farms in the area that generate up to 7 gigawatts of energy \u2014 enough to power about 2 million homes \u2014 which would require 600 to 700 turbines.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Those 600 or 700 wind turbines will require people to build turbine components, ship them out to sea, and maintain them once they\u2019re set up. To make that happen, the White House and Transportation Department are aiming to create nearly 80,000 offshore wind-related jobs by 2030 by investing in ports across the Eastern Seaboard \u2014 some as far inland as Albany, New York, from where turbine parts will be shipped down the Hudson River to the New York Bight.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The turbines, fishers say, could negatively affect marine life. They\u2019re also concerned that turbine towers may interfere with radar, while no-sail safety zones in the vicinity of turbines may affect their ability to reach fishing areas. The long-term impacts of wind turbines on marine life still aren\u2019t clear, but a study in Europe\u2019s North Sea showed turbine bases may act as artificial reefs for animals like mussels. Late last year, the Energy Department awarded Duke University a $7.5 million grant to study offshore wind\u2019s impact on marine life, the results of which should provide a fuller picture of how turbines might affect fisheries. In the meantime, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is looking for workarounds, which is why the sale notice for the New York Bight includes provisions aimed at helping fishers, such as 2.8-mile-wide transit lanes for fishing vessels.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“The challenges don\u2019t end there: Even if the wind turbines do get built, and even if their potential impacts on marine life are minimized, there has to be somewhere for the energy they produce to go. Transmission lines \u2014 those high-voltage cables you see strung up on steel struts across vast stretches of the country \u2014 are usually built by regional transmission organizations, and Jacobs says there might not be enough of them to carry all the energy produced by those new turbines.<\/p>\n

This is exactly the issue Germany faced in 2020, when a lack of transmission capacity in Northern Germany meant the region had to send some of its wind power to neighboring countries instead. \u201cThey had a whole lot of offshore wind arrive at the beach,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cAnd then the German utility industry said, \u2018Oh, we hadn\u2019t really prepared for this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Biden administration seems to want to avoid having a similar situation happen in the United States. That\u2019s why the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes funding for transmission lines, and the administration announced the Energy Department is launching an initiative called Building a Better Grid that will act as a sort of central planning authority for grid improvements. But it\u2019s unclear if that transmission buildout will happen by the time offshore wind gets up and running in the New York Bight \u2014 and the administration makes no mention of distribution lines, or the lower-voltage wires that bring electricity to homes and businesses. Those are usually built in the US by local utilities, explained Kyri Baker, assistant professor of engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, and they\u2019re often only replaced once they become completely inoperable.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[235,234,780,1059],"class_list":["post-7169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-energy","tag-energy-policy","tag-joe-biden","tag-wind-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7170,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7169\/revisions\/7170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}