Floating Wind Turbines In the Gulf Will Be "Towed Into Port" Ahead of Hurricanes
As Part of A Larger Story, The BEC Poses A Few Questions
Less than a year ago, The Advocate/nola.com ran a series of five articles on the upcoming development of wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas. Authored by Environment Reporter Tristan Baurick, the newspaper could not be more aglow about the project; it is as if God’s Angels themselves carry these massive towers to site on their sacred wing, lowering them into place with the precision of the Maker Himself.
Baurick wrote with barely any hesitation about the project; admitting any complicating factors seemed forced out of his pen. Very clearly, Tristan Baurick loves him some wind energy!
But what about hurricanes?
Inevitably, questions arose in the reporting about wind turbines and the potential destructive forces of hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. Both within the written series and in a three-person panel assembled by the starry-eyed writer, Baurick assured readers and listeners that the turbines can be “towed into port” ahead of an incoming storm. He spoke of this effort with a casualness that left us quite worried here at The BEC. Tristan Baurick is uncurious and uncaring of the process of fetching these things from the Gulf of Mexico.
This plan to keep the wind towers safe from Mother Nature’s wrath was repeated and affirmed by Mandeville’s Keystone Engineering Manager of Renewable Energy, Sara Ghazizadeh. “We’re running out of space for fixed developments,” she said, so the “newest thing in the market” are floating tower concepts.
Jumping on the tow-ahead-of-the-storm bandwagon was State Representative Joe Orgeron, holder of a Ph.D. in physics, founding member of the Louisiana Conservative Caucus, and co-founder of 2nd Wind Marine, of Galliano, whose vessels are designed for wind tower installation and maintenance. “It would be a very lucrative gig for the Gulf of Mexico tugboat market, I tell you that.”
Give a glance to the towing of these massive structures… and imagine a hurricane is on the way:
Color us skeptic, but The BEC isn’t buying it and, perish the thought, unexperts like us will pose questions that were thoroughly unasked in the writing of Baurick’s series and in the panel discussion that followed it.
At what point in the hurricane path forecast would the decision be made to fetch the towers, when the storm entered the Gulf near the Florida Keys? A day later? The speed at which storms move varies widely; so how will the real nuts and bolts of this effort go off, and who makes the call?
How is it at all feasible to tow wind towers into a port? Where are any ports that can store massive wind turbine structures during a raging hurricane… and all on a few day’s notice?
Let’s imagine there are ten towers: How many tug/tow boats would be sent to fetch them? How distant are they from the coast? In four one-way trips, how many miles would the boats travel, using how much fuel, and releasing how much CO2?
Who would cover the cost of this recovery and re-installation? (Somehow, the cynic in us foresees FEMA footing this bill, meaning: the taxpayers, you and I would pay for it.) Would insurance cover these costs? If there’s an accident in the recovery and lives or property are lost, who is liable?
Once the boats arrive, teams of skilled and experienced workers would need to untether the massive structures and decouple them from the cable system that sends their electricity to the coast. What’s involved in doing that? How long would it take to untether and decouple 10 wind turbines while a hurricane is on the way? And later, at re-installation, what’s that process to reinstall them? Is this a great risk to human life?
The point of cable connectivity seems vulnerable and miles of cable could be churned up by the storm. How durable is the cable system in a hurricane?
What would these boats otherwise be used for ahead of an incoming hurricane? Are other assets put at risk as a consequence of unavailable boats? Would the owner/operators of the boats keep them in harm’s way for the sake of moving some wind turbines, regardless of the profit in moving them?
Imagining that Electric Vehicle targets are modestly reached, and an abundance of automobiles are EVs, how are local people on the coast to charge their vehicles ahead of evacuation while the towers supplying electricity are not producing electricity?
Specifically how “in port” will anyone secure ten massive wind towers such that they are protected from hurricane force winds? And why will the towers be any less damaged by a hurricane in port than out in the Gulf, where they’re properly anchored? Just what difference does it make to tow them anywhere? And considering their size and the unknowable way they’d be secured against high winds, aren’t they more dangerous to life and property in port than out at sea?
Again, presuming the local community is dependent upon these towers as the source of their electric power, how will people’s vital energy needs be met once the storm passes? And if the towers sustain damage during the storm, how much time might pass before the towers are redeployed? Do these schemes imagine, anticipate, or meet emergency needs, in real time, in real ways?
Assuming power needs are met in ways other than the towers, does that not beg the question about the need for the wind turbines at all, so the cost and risks of not only fetching them, but constructing and installing them in the first place, are a waste of resources? Are there not far better options for supplying electricity to coastal communities? Should any of these plans be needed?
It shocks the conscience that the smartest people in the room — the reporters, the engineers, the physics Ph.D’s — cannot see and won’t ask the obvious questions apparent to anyone who gives this a half-ounce of thought.
Indeed, these “experts” are fully dis-incentivized to ask these questions, lest their profit motive be exposed, or their dreams of “zero carbon emissions” stub a toe on the way to Paradise.
Why not nuclear power?
The ultimate question about this entire project remained not only unasked but unimagined: Why are any wind farms needed in the Gulf of Mexico when the intermittent, unreliable, and expensive energy they produce, along with damage to the Gulf itself, are all replaceable and avoidable by simply constructing a nuclear power station, providing constant, low-cost, reliable electricity for the Gulf Coast?
The BEC stands in total opposition to the Gulf of Mexico wind farm project. In work still to be published, we’ll further explain the damage to be endured by the Gulf while detailing the many reasons for our opposition.
What could possibly go wrong? Good grief.