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JustWhatAmI t1_iti570h wrote

Reply to comment by RuachDelSekai in China is building a 40 gigawatt offshore wind farm, the biggest power plant in existence by mutherhrg

You think it's better or worse than offshore oil drilling?

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RuachDelSekai t1_itia217 wrote

Lmao, guys, I'm not against wind farms. I'm not pro-big oil. I just wonder if building them offshore is better than doing it inland.

I don't have the answer, I'm not a wind farm technician. Lol

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JustWhatAmI t1_itieykw wrote

Never said you were against wind farms. I just asked how you thought it compared to oil drilling? What do you think?

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RuachDelSekai t1_itim0vp wrote

I know it can be done relatively safely but inevitably there is always some sort of accident or spill. Also, offshore rigs built in "developing countries" with looser regulations create a literal ecological hellscape. But I'm also of the opinion that humanity needs to phase out the use of petroleum products. Big oil and the global auto industry have a literal chokehold on human society. The crisis in Venezuela, the crisis in Haiti, are all either directly because of or exacerbated by breakdowns in the petrochemical supply chain. Even the United States doesn't have enough refining capacity to handle its own gasoline consumption. Like I said, I'm no wind power expert. I don't know what the long term or second order or third order impacts are to having massive wind farms everywhere, but I can't imagine that it's anything close to the the risk of our dependence on oil.

By the same token, I'm also extremely worried about the safety of marine environments and our continued destruction of our oceans. I have literal anxiety thinking about what the state of the world might be in 200 years time. I fear for my children and my children's children and I worry that there won't even be a world where they'll be able to enjoy the same level of relative freedom that I've been able to enjoy in my life due to ecological collapse.

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GeforcerFX t1_itlonyg wrote

There's pros and cons to both offshore and inland wind turbine farms. Offshore can be larger farms and use larger turbines, winds are also usually more predictable and stable offshore. The downside is building and maintenence, you have to move all that equipment offshore and maintain it there which cost more and adds logistical challenges. We saw offshore become very popular in Europe because there land is so valuable and not all the countries there have a lot of land to devote to inland wind farms. In the USA we have gobs of land with no one living on it and with good winds annually so we still build wind farms inland mainly. They also tend to be pretty close to population centers or industry so the transfer loss isn't terrible, and they are usually replacing existing powerplants in the area so they can reuse that transfer infrastructure dropping the cost. China also has large amounts of land that is relatively empty, but it has most of the disadvantages as offshore for them, very far from industry and transport to site would be a lot harder, building offshore puts the power plant right next to the people and industry for them.

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RuachDelSekai t1_itlu09b wrote

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the in-depth explanation.

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