There have been conflicting stories surrounding the wind farm proposals in Delaware and other states.
The first is that Orsted has just recently stated they have pulled their proposal off the table (of the Delaware beaches, notably off Fenwick Island). The reasons seem to be vague. One reason that they are dropping the controversial proposal is that the land based wind has failed the test, due to a lack of wind. The other concerns are the economy and the corronavirus, as well as the design setbacks.
Presently the state of Rhode Island is the only state with wind turbines, but other states are looking into them.
The size of the wind turbines is 600 feet in Rhode Island, and they apparently are not large enough to be beneficial to perform to meet the demand that is under the scope today. Orsted is the designer of these 600-foot wind turbines.
There are ongoing design issues in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. The design was introduced in 2017 by Vineyard Wind LLC but has not been accepted, and is still being evaluated by Vineyard and the federal agencies. The residents of Martha’s Vineyard are strongly opposed to this proposal, and are going to fight them in court.
The same type of design issues face Orsted in Delaware. The larger-size wind turbines have never been tested, designed and approved, and have never been built anywhere in the United States, to date.
The distance of the shoreline continues to be a big issue, as well as the size of the turbines being proposed.
In the state of Maryland, there is a proposal by MarWin Wind Farm (based out of Baltimore, Md.), off the coast of Ocean City, Md. This project has been delayed until at least 2024. The heights of the wind turbines and how close off the shoreline continue to plague this project.
In the state of New Jersey, there have been recent reports that they want to develop a wind farm right in the Delaware River, in the next year or so. There have been other reports that they would like to see other locations down at the Jersey Shore. This will probably meet resistance from homeowners whowill be affected by the construction as well as their view of the beaches.
In closing, Orsted has been quoted that they are still considering two other locations in Southern Delaware.
One location is Bethany Beach and the other is Cedar Neck, Ocean View area? I’m sure that the residents of Bethany Beach will have something to say about that idea!
Please keep this in mind. These are just pie in the sky ideas and they haven’t even been designed, tested, approved, and built anywhere in the USA.
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.
