What are the *specific* benefits we can anticipate from the wind farms off the coast?

Submitted by 3kool5you t3_11bqyeo in newjersey

I was very in favor of the wind farms when they were first announced. To me it seemed an awesome idea. Clean energy with no setbacks!

I don’t think the whale stuff is 100% the fault of the windmill building, and I think that’s mostly Republican propaganda (although in general I’m not a fan of ruling out just because republicans are taking the opposite stance. I would like to see more concrete research either way)

All that being said, with the windmills in public conscious again it’s got me thinking about how will they impact are day to day life? I understand the general spiel: a great source of clean renewable energy. That’s awesome. But what exactly does that mean? As NJ resident and taxpayer, will I see the impacts of this financially at all? Will the access to clean energy result in money saving in some aspect of NJ life?

If not financially, will I experience evidence of the cleaner energy? Will there be less power plant smoke stacks on my drive to the airport?

I hope my tone doesn’t come across like an asshole here. I’m genuinely curious and enthusiastic about more clean energy, just curious If anyone knows the exact benefits we can expect

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Jimmytowne t1_ja0qt2z wrote

Nobody Alive today will see world peace in their lifetime. The mere thought of war increases the price of non reusable energy. It’s important to have wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric accessible to our state and nation.

Will our utilities bills get cut in half? Probably not, but they won’t double because two countries don’t like each other.

Some of the most beautiful places in the world Have wind turbines in their waters. NJ will get used to it

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lost_in_life_34 t1_j9zrolh wrote

the price of electricity from wind won't go up if Russia or some other fossil fuel nation decides they want to extort money from the rest of the world. In 1973 we had an economy that was screwed for a decade or longer after Saudi Arabia stopped selling oil to us and other geopolitics. With all the energy efficiency codes and energy independence in the last 40 years Russia invaded Ukraine and it had no effect on us but look at what happened in Europe

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and over time there will be less fossil fuel infrastructure

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CapeManiac t1_ja2v477 wrote

This is also why nuclear power is a good option (for electric)

The issue is we will need fossil “fuels” for materials like asphalt, shingles, plastics, etc.

Also we need batteries for vehicles which will come from foreign lands. The materials for batteries will simply be the new “oil” we rely on others to provide.

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Slavic_Dusa t1_ja1cer8 wrote

This reads very insincere.

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aced124C t1_ja1vfii wrote

Exactly what I'm getting from this as well. This is exactly the kind of double language someone would use to cast doubt on the wind turbine project without actually directly saying . A true spinner of words most likely watches a lot of faux lol

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3kool5you OP t1_ja37h3f wrote

I can see how but I’m being genuine lol. I’m not anti wind farms at all

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love2Vax t1_j9zz3l3 wrote

Being a coastal state that is facing a threat of rising sea leaves, I think there is an obvious answer to most of us. In the long term, fossil fuels will eventually run low, get more expensive, and harder to sustain. Wind poses less of a threat to us than nuclear waste, so there is that.

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grumble4 t1_ja1e4w4 wrote

“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

Think of someone other than yourself.

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valeofraritan t1_ja0q6jd wrote

Other than slowing down the planet burning to a crisp, yes, but not overnight and people living closer to them will benefit more than someone in Sussex or Warren County. Atlantic City Electric's been using wind turbines for years, btw.

I've also read that there's a group in Texas behind the protests against wind energy in the Atlantic. They're active here, LI and in Rhode Island. Betting it's a fossil fuel backed group.

There's no evidence that the turbines have anything to do with the whale deaths. In fact, whale deaths off the coast have been going up steadily for years before this.

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Belfordclamhound t1_ja0uw3x wrote

It's literally people who live in the coastal communities who are upset with the marine mammals dieing, keeping running with your big oil conspiracy. All the people I know who've grown up and worked around the coast of nj are concencerened and have never seen anything like what has been going for the last two months...

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valeofraritan t1_ja11ogq wrote

The group, Texas Public Policy Foundation's (funded by conservatives like Koch and oil companies such as. Exxon, Chevron, coal companies and closely tied to the trump administration officials like Perry, who they've always backed and named their office building after are good at getting others to side with them by hitting emotional notes without providing actual proof. They do it in every jurisdiction they file lawsuits against environmentally friendly projects in. They're well-known having advocated for a punch list of conservative issues since their founding in 1989.

Even News12 said today they felt bad for the people being misled by this group because their good natures were being exp0loited by professionals. TPPF doesn't care about the people, cetaceans or anything but keeping fossil fuels flowing.

Google them. They've been campaigning against environmentally friendly energy for years now across the country.

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Miraculous_Heraclius t1_ja11ih3 wrote

I don't think you can say anything is 'literally' happening when using only anecdotes as your basis. That said, I'm down to see which ecological groups are lining up on the anti-renewable engery side of the argument.

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Zhuul t1_ja19u81 wrote

If you’re looking for clear and explicit benefits it’s doubtful that they’ll be readily apparent but infrastructure investment is a gradual process that is both necessary and boring.

The fact is the whale deaths have nothing to do with wind power (construction hasn’t even started yet ffs) and we need to generate as much of our power from non-fossil-fuel sources as possible.

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NJ35-71SONS t1_j9zp0q9 wrote

Good question. I don’t know the answer but I’m also wondering about the visibility aspect of this. Is it true they will be visible from the beach? I always thought the horizon line was 3 miles, and apparently these are proposed to be further. Can someone confirm or deny if they will be visible from the beach? Any beach…

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Rusty_Ferberger t1_ja05hp3 wrote

Even if they are visible, would that be so bad? We have shit like utility poles and wires, building in disrepair, as well as billboards cluttering up the state, could a wind turbine 3 miles out to sea be so bad?

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Rick_sanchezJ19ZETA7 t1_ja0qdrr wrote

Donald Trump decided wind mills are ugly and cause cancer so now they hate them.

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SmeemyMeemy t1_ja16nns wrote

Oh and then other right wing nuts spun that into sonar mapping us killing our precious whales. No dipshit, blunt force trauma from oil tankers and cargo ships did them in according to autopsy. But facts am I right?

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Mysterious_Ant3095 t1_ja29o0l wrote

Yeah all of a sudden the ships did them in with no other factors. They haven’t been swimming past ships for years with almost no issue. Start blasting sonar to map for the windmills and at least 22 wash up dead in a matter of weeks. Probably not worth looking in to that though since it just never happens.

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Tapirium t1_ja2qrue wrote

I reckon that because global supply chains are in the midst of recovering from the lull of the pandemic, there has been substantial increase in ship traffic over the past two years(as we return to prepandemic commercial environment. I am not saying this IS the reason, but it could explain some of the cetecean deaths.

Whales have washed up on NJ beaches for centuries, it isn't necessarily a new phenomenon. However, the increase in occurence is fairly new and that is rightfully concerning. There are many lobbies and special interests that stand to lose money if these wind turbines are installed, keep those actors in mind when reading anything critical of the project. The opposite is true for those in support of it.

There's a lot of politics involved in this project and we need to be careful not to latch onto talking points before facts have a chance to catch up. The deaths of whales are heartbreaking, I suspect Exelon knows this and is happily preying upon those heart strings to fight against renewable energy in NJ, this is expected from a company who has monopolized the energy market in South Jersey.

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SmeemyMeemy t1_ja2u3rm wrote

You are actually more correct than you realize! This is exactly what happened.

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love2Vax t1_j9zyblx wrote

Taller items can be seen at further distances. Turbines are taller than ships, so you would see them further than any ship off of the coast.

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EmbracedByLeaves t1_ja3k19l wrote

Visibility at sea level is about 6 miles. These are 900' tall, they will easily be visible.

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BentonD_Struckcheon t1_ja1a8mn wrote

Offshore wind produces more energy than onshore. Wind in general is complementary to solar, as it produces more at night and in the winter, when solar is either producing nothing or very little.

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JimTheJerseyGuy t1_ja0xbx7 wrote

How far off the coast are they supposed to be anyway? How visible could they actually be?

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a-german-muffin t1_ja171yg wrote

Closest is about 15 miles at Atlantic City and about 15.5 from Ocean City, with varying distances otherwise.

The pylons are tall — like 835 feet — so you’ll be able to see them for sure, but they’ll be pretty small on the horizon (and virtually invisible from about 25 miles and farther, since that’s over the horizon).

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erection_specialist t1_ja3fd8j wrote

Odd that they complain that the windmills will spoil their ocean view. I guess they'd rather look at tankers spewing exhaust instead.

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JimTheJerseyGuy t1_ja439m2 wrote

I routinely look at the NYC skyline from 15 miles away and those buildings are fucking TINY. What are wind turbines (if you could even see them!) going to look like at that distance?

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erection_specialist t1_ja5i8nx wrote

It's a moot point. Doesn't matter what you tell them, these morons will run around parroting whatever Fox News told them to be upset about

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leetnewb2 t1_ja2esbt wrote

Offshore wind is in its early stages in general here, but especially here. Wind power costs have come down tremendously, but onshore is simpler and less expensive. In a state like NJ, onshore isn't all that viable to scale up. Experience with offshore wind should drive costs down as it has elsewhere, but we sort of need the industry, process, and domain knowledge to do it effectively.

IMO, the question isn't whether the current offshore wind builds benefit you directly. Rather, it is whether offshore wind belongs in the energy portfolio in the long run. If it does, laying the groundwork today makes a whole lot of sense.

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[deleted] t1_ja1o5lr wrote

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potatochipsfox t1_ja1r4f7 wrote

Stop spreading these stupid lies. Wind farms work in Canada, they can work here. They froze in Texas because they decided to gamble on saving money by not winterizing. They lost.

As for stopping when the wind stops, wow, you're so smart! I bet the people who've been doing this for decades never thought of that, thank goodness you came along. No way they know something you don't.

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[deleted] t1_ja2vtos wrote

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potatochipsfox t1_ja38kzy wrote

I prefer to let the experts who've dedicated their lives to studying the issue do the research. They know more than I do about it. It would be extremely arrogant of me to think that I can do a better job than they can.

How about you open your eyes and realize how much wind power is already deployed around the world. We're not guessing about an uncertain future here. We've been doing this for a while now, we know it works.

> wind power is not stable

Do you actually think that you're the only person who knows this? Do you honestly believe that you're blowing the lid off this whole operation with your Nostradamus-like prediction that sometimes the wind stops?

Yes, we know that. We fucking obviously know that. You aren't smart for pointing it out. Did it ever occur to you that the people who have spent decades working with this technology have also been living on the same fucking Earth you live on? That maybe, just maybe, they know what the fucking wind is? And that, because they know this, they also account for it when designing these systems? No, it didn't enter your head at all, because your head is fucking empty.

> and not cost effective

Yes, power companies are definitely in the business of spending billions of dollars on things that aren't cost effective, idiot.

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RangerExpensive6519 t1_ja0cp52 wrote

More dead whales and dolphin. Probably dead migratory birds too. Also if people think they are going to cut our electric bills in half, they are delusional. They will line their pockets before they pass any money on to us.

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