quote Originally posted by rinselberg: ..with the expectation that natural gas, nuclear (Diablo Canyon), "hydro" and geothermal (all current energy sources for the California grid) will continue to have their place for the foreseeable future.

We extended Diablo Canyon's lifespan to 2035 then it gets decommissioned. The original plan was to shut down in 2025 but we received an extension. After that, no more nuclear power. The sad part is that with this drought, we had to shut down several of our Hydro generation plants because there is no water to create the electricity. The reservoirs that we use are drying up. The truth is that California will need other options very soon.

Adam Stern of Offshore Wind California joined a brief conversation on NBC-affiliate KCRA (Sacramento) about the plans for new offshore wind energy to feed California's power grid from floating wind turbine installations.

Not directly related to wind energy, but on the EVs front, did you know that one of four new ARPA-E programs that were launched in 2022 is the "Electric Vehicles for American Low-carbon Living" initiative? There's a very compact and very readable summary that fits very comfortably on a single page:
https://arpa-e.energy.gov/t...ies/programs/evs4all

Just before the last days of 2022... let the words speak for themselves:

quote Akselos SA and a consortium of partners led by Principle Power Inc. announced today that it was awarded $3.6 million in funding from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The funding will be used to develop, validate, and operate the world’s first digital twin software on the WindFloat Atlantic (WFA) Project, which will be one of the world’s only existing floating offshore wind farms.

"Akselos & partners awarded $3.6m by US DoE for digital twin project of floating offshore wind farm"
December 21, 2022
https://akselos.com/akselos...-offshore-wind-farm/

What's a "digital twin" in the context of wind energy projects? This fairly brief video (just three and a half minutes) explains the concept:

"Doosan Wind Farm Digital Twin: Visualizing IoT and Machine Learning"





Zephyrus, deity of wind from the west in Greek mythology. (Contemporary depiction.)

Reminds me of an all wet blowhard.. The deity.

Checking in with some media updates. Like the wind-driven upwelling of colder ocean water from the deep, this forum thread bobs to the surface again, after not having seen daylight since the beginning of the year.

Local coverage from New Jersey 101.5; September 4, 2023.
https://nj1015.com/revealed...like-from-the-beach/

"Clean Energy’s Fate May Be Decided on the Jersey Shore"
Elizabeth Cerceo; guest essay for the New York Times; September 5, 2023.
https://www.nytimes.com/202...page§ion=Opinion

One of the main offshore wind energy developers in this "mix" is Denmark-based Orsted.

They've had to scale back some of their plan, adjusting (so they say) to the financial exigencies of supply chain bottlenecks and concomitant price increases, along with monetary inflation in general.

Here's an excerpt from Dr Cerceo's essay in the New York Times:

quote Over the past few months, hundreds of Jersey Shore residents have staged demonstrations opposing Ocean Wind 1, an offshore wind farm being developed by a subsidiary of Orsted, a Danish company. The 98-turbine installation, 13 nautical miles southeast of Atlantic City, would provide enough electricity to power almost 500,000 homes — a major step toward weaning New Jersey off the fossil fuels that poison our air and endanger our shoreline. Some have painted these anti-wind crusaders as Jersey Shore versions of the Cape Cod residents fighting to preserve the view from their multimillion-dollar homes. But I think there’s something else at play. The transition away from fossil fuels in America is happening quickly, transforming landscapes around us. New wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy infrastructure are being built before our eyes, and in some cases in our hometowns. It’s a lot of change — and still only a fraction of what’s needed. Such sweeping change, however beneficial, is inevitably going to feel a little disorienting. Oil and gas companies, which have a lot to lose, have exploited this feeling to great effect.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 09-05-2023).]

quote The 98-turbine installation, 13 nautical miles southeast of Atlantic City, would provide enough electricity to power almost 500,000 homes — a major step toward weaning New Jersey off the fossil fuels that poison our air and endanger our shoreline.

There are close to 4 million homes (3,785,346 'housing units') in New Jersey as of 2022.

If you call 1/8th of something a "major step" just eat 1/8 your normal food intake per day or increase it by 1/8 and see if it makes any difference.

Or cut your own pay by 1/8.
1/8 of $1 is 12.5 cents.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 09-05-2023).]

Hello maryjane and thanks for checking in. Ever the online impresario (me) ...

A full buildout of Ocean Wind 1 would provide enough energy on an annual basis to power 500,000 homes.

But that's just Ocean Wind 1. The first project in the pipeline. There are additional, non-contiguous ocean tracts that have been mapped out for wind energy builds along the Long Island and New Jersey coastlines.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 09-05-2023).]

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: A full buildout of Ocean Wind 1 would provide enough energy on an annual basis to power 500,000 homes.

24 / 7 / 365, ... ?

quote Originally posted by rinselberg: But that's just Ocean Wind 1. The first project in the pipeline. There are additional, non-contiguous ocean tracts that have been mapped out for wind energy builds along the Long Island and New Jersey coastlines.

Question. Will these wind projects make electricity cheaper ?

Question. How many of these wind projects will stop Global Warming ?