A blow to offshore wind
Thursday we learned Ørsted was backing off from their deal with Maryland.
There’s less of a chance we’ll see these behemoths off Ocean City, but the chance isn’t zero yet. One down, one to go.
Just days after the local Congressman, Andy Harris, held a hearing in Ocean City chock full of opponents of expanding offshore wind to our Atlantic coast, the Danish company Ørsted announced they were going to “reposition” its 966-megawatt project to another state or otherwise try and get a better economic deal.
According to Orsted, financial incentives provided by Maryland for the company to pursue the project are no longer enough for Skipjack to continue off the coast.
Orsted says those incentives, established in the Maryland Public Service Commission Orders, are no longer commercially viable due to the market, inflation, high interest rates, supply chain constraints. Orsted says it has therefore pulled out from those orders with Maryland.
The Skipjack project initially called for 60 to 70 wind turbines off the coast of Delmarva.
The energy company did say they still intend to continue developing and permitting for the Skipjack project, though in conjunction with what state, including Maryland, remains to be seen. Orsted Group Executive Vice President and CEO Americas at Orsted David Hardy did say the withdrawal would allow the Skipjack project to “reposition” for future finance agreements.
In addition, David Hardy, Group Executive Vice President and CEO Americas at Ørsted, said “We are grateful to Governor Moore, the Maryland Public Service Commission and the State of Maryland for their steadfast partnership and support as we have worked diligently to develop Skipjack Wind under challenging economic circumstances. We fully support the state’s leadership as they pursue their ambitious offshore wind goal. We also thank the State of Delaware for its collaborative approach to supporting Skipjack Wind’s development.”
This is what has to change. It’s obvious that 500 people came out on a crummy day to essentially hold an opposition rally to the idea of offshore wind. It hits them where they live - as Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan explained:
This is the only city in the state where you can experience the sunrise over the Atlantic. What is being proposed would destroy what 26,000 property owners and millions of visitors enjoy today and for future generations. Putting turbines closer than 26 nautical miles from our coast or even 10 nautical miles would destroy that. The sunrise over the Atlantic would look like a backdrop from Star Wars.
US Wind has yet to do an economic analysis of the impacts of this project on the economy. Why hasn't this been done? What is also being ignored is the revenue that Ocean City sends that is in the millions to the state and federal government each year. We only have one industry in Ocean City, and this will jeopardize that.
As I explained a couple weeks ago regarding a complementary offshore wind project by US Wind:
A bad deal for Delaware
While many folks were out Christmas shopping or just getting ready for the holidays, the state of Delaware was trying to slip a present into the stocking of prospective offshore wind operators. On December 19, it was announced by Governor John Carney - who, by the way, is the lamest of ducks, as his second and final term expires next year - that the state would negotiate with US Wind regarding the terms of the infrastructure necessary for having a pair of offshore wind farms off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland. It’s legacy-building time at our expense.
Because US Wind is in for a penny for this project, Delaware does have the whip hand on this. Yet its misguided rush to pay more for “free” but unreliable energy ignores the needs of consumers who don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to keep their lights on. A better deal would be to cancel the entire US Wind project and look for ways to improve reliable methods of power generation so they’re less polluting, such as converting the Indian River facility to natural gas. Just because Maryland wants to play with this insanity doesn’t mean we have to be involved, too.
And all we get is the lousy t-shirt. Well, maybe we could get a second from one of those Sunsations “2-for-$10” specials except we’d have to scrape up some loose change to get that extra dollar after the $9 we supposedly save on our electric bill.
People should be well aware of where I stand. If they’re going to put something that gathers energy out in the ocean, maybe it should be an oil or natural gas platform. It’s amazing to think how long we have been drilling for oil out in the ocean but there have been comparatively few incidents. They’ve talked for years about the possibility of oil and natural gas off our shores, but no one has had the cajones to demand exploration. There were test wells drilled off the Atlantic nearly four decades ago that were dry holes, but we’ve improved the technology since then. People who say there’s nothing out there may well just be afraid of the possibility that there is something there.
Once our society found a reliable source of energy, we used it to improve living standards for billions of people. To me, wind energy is going forward into the past, since rural America abandoned the windmill a century ago when rural electrification (powered generally by coal) showed up. The rural co-op was simply more reliable.
Unfortunately, the solution most likely to be pushed on us by government will be additional subsidies to these foreign corporations. That’s why the meeting last week was so important because it shows we don’t want this boondoggle to continue.
Until next time, also remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.
Thanks, Michael. We “Wind Warriors” are moderately hopeful about the Orsted decision but we know what’s going on underneath - more taxpayer and ratepayer money to prop them up.
We fight on.
Thank you for speaking out on this topic. Here in Oxford, the spin masters are working hard to tell us that their ugly, destructive Strand Shoreline Restoration Project is “ good for us and we should get over it.” I don’t think so.