I have to admit to a certain dubiety about this:
In Sclavounos view, the economics of the power industry are already approaching a tipping point that will drive rapid adoption of floating turbines. "The technology is essentially proven," he says. "We know we can design [platforms] and spars that are not going to move in big storms. What is going to lead to this industry taking off will be the economics. When carbon-emissions trading markets start maturing, you\’re going to see this industry take off, even without state subsidies. We\’re not far from it."
Not the statement about economics, that\’s obvious. As and when some form of renewables is indeed viable against conventional then it will indeed take off.
He estimates that Blue H\’s wind farms will deliver wind energy for seven to eight cents per kilowatt-hour, roughly matching the current cost of natural gas-fired generation and conventional onshore wind energy.
That\’s the bit I\’m dubious about, that they have in fact reached that point.
Anyone know more about it?
Whether this technology has ‘matched’ the cost of onshore wind rather begs the point.
First, onshore wind is heavily subsidized; presumably, offshore wind–to realize the same costs–would need to be just as heavily subsidized.
Second, wind is intermittent, so it is unfit for purpose, either as baseload or spinning reserve, and requires constant standby backup from conventional sources.
Nobody seems to understand the second point very well….
Utterly impossible to have wind power for 6-7 cents/kwh. Utterly. Nuclear power, on the other hand, can be generated for less than a nickle/kwh. AND, it’s off-peak cost, at ONE cent/kwh makes it a boon for manufacturers. Unfortunately, your government is so far gone that it hates manufacturers and certainly does not want prosperity in England. As catholicfundamentalism.com endlessly points out, the people who lie for power monopolies all burn in the 8th Circle. This (6-7 cents/kwh for wind power) is the biggest energy lie in recent history.
Eric-You’re correct, “they”-politicians and the average consumer-do not understand, but the electric power segment does. And, as soon as the subsidized wind “power” forced upon the utilities by those same politicians exceeds about 15% of on-line capacity, the inevitable grid-wide blackouts that will result may convince the consumers as well.