Wind Power and Sailors

Sailors owe their power, and in some cases their livelihoods, to the gods of wind. It only makes sense, then, that we should be at the forefront of a movement designed to harness that power for something other than a Sunday picnic sail. You’ll have to forgive me for setting up this soapbox–but after all, it is my blog–but what I’m talking about here is doing everything we can to agitate for serious public and private investments in this proven source of renewable energy.

In particular, I’m talking about the proposed 170-turbine wind farm in Horseshoe Shoals, Massachusetts. This is a visionary project. In scope, it will be the largest offshore windfarm in North America. Its supporters claim that it will provide enough reliable, clean, and renewable energy to provide for the entire Cape Cod region. Its opponents claim that it will be a large, ugly blight on the horizon that will impede navigation, endanger wildlife, and be harmful to the region’s economy.

Perhaps most striking is that the headline opponent is the otherwise-progressive Senator from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Senator Ted Kennedy. In reasonable language on the Senate floor, Kennedy said that we have to decrease our dependence on foreign sources of oil by developing renewable forms of energy “…in the right way.” This is all well and good to say, until your interpretation of doing things the “right way” effectively blocks innovation and necessary change.

The arguments against the project are at best, windy and misleading. At worst they are dangerous. Here are some examples offered by the opposition, followed by my responses.

1. They’ll be too visible

This is enough of a stretch to be simply, absolutely, incorrect. Even a passing knowledge (or even vague recollection of) high school trigonometry will demonstrate that large structures, when viewed from afar, appear smaller. A visualsimulation of what the farm will look like on the horizon can be seen here at Cape Wind’s web site.

2. Easy for you to say; they’re not in your backyard

Neither are the coal burning plants that dot and litter this country’s landscape and contribute to some of the worst air in the country! I suppose we should continue buying our power from these monsters, and supporting the filthy, strip-mining industry in this country that feeds them?
I live in New York City, which just last year beat Los Angeles as having the nation’s filthiest air. I can tell you for a fact that I’d support the world’s largest wind farm being built right here, next to my building, if it meant that poor children in the Bronx had a better shot of not being asthmatic! (We have the nation’s highest rate of childhood asthma as well. Go, New York!)

3. They’ll be too loud

These aren’t the noisy, small, high-speed things you see attached to the transoms of sailboats. These are enormous and slow-turning. How much do you think you’ll hear from Cotuit—which is 5.5 miles away from them? Let’s be reasonable; the noise is simply not an issue.

4. They’ll harm migrating birds

Optical and radar-based studies conducted by scientists at the Horns Rev site in Denmark demonstrate conclusively that birds are actually quite good at avoiding large structures. Because they’re, you know, really large.

What they are not good at avoiding, especially as Fall draws near, is plate-glass windows from high rise buildings in major cities like Chicago and New York. Here, bird mortality rates are startlingly high.

5. They’ll be an obstruction to aircraft and water vessels

I’ve been a waterman for 15 years now, both crewing and operating commercial vessels in New York harbor. It boggles my mind that any seaman worth his salt would actually claim that these structures will impede navigation. And let’s be clear: by “navigation”, we are not talking about commercial steamship or ferry routes. We’re talking about day sailors, for the most part. The turbines will be spaced approximately 6 football fields away from each other within a row (.34 nautical miles) and the rows will be close to a half mile apart (approximately .54 nautical miles). If you can’t avoid those, then, honestly, you do not belong on the water operating a kayak, let alone a power or sail vessel.

As for aircraft, though I’m not a pilot I can count pilots amongst our family friends and acquaintances. Having more than a passing knowledge of aircraft, it boils down to this: pilots are taught, especially in these post-9/11 days, all about the various categories of controlled, restricted, and forbidden airspace. The farm will be well marked on Sectional Charts that pilots study and use. They are also going to be marked with aircraft warning beacons. This falls under the category of “no brainer”, I’m afraid.

6. They’ll harm the environment during the construction process

This is undeniable. The real question missed is, how much harm for how much reward? (Your subdivision housing also harmed the environment, if that means anything. So does your SUV. So did Boston’s Big Dig, the Eisenhower Interstate System, and all manner of public works that you benefit from. And none of those got us any closer to achieving a lick of energy and national security.)

7. Property values will decrease in the areas adjacent to the wind farm

People in the communities around Horns Rev, in Denmark, had similar concerns. Images of crashing property values, speculators descending like vultures on foreclosed homes, and family fortunes ruined were all part of the fears prior to construction. In reality, the beach resort of Blavandshuk, in Denmark, has seen no negative economic impact.

8. The bright strobes/aircraft warning lights will be distracting

This is sort of like saying that the lights from buoys (“aids” in sailor’s parlance) is distracting. Look at a nautical chart, like on the small shot below:

Next to charted aids, the government (NOAA in our country) specifies the visibility and range of each aid’s light. Here, this light is on a “light float” (an unmanned lightship, basically), and its visibility is 11m in nominal conditions. Humidity, the height of your eye above the horizon, and all sorts of other atmospheric conditions can decrease the effective visibility of a light.  The beacons and lights on the Cape Wind farm can be adjusted so that they have minimal impact.

9. They’ll be ugly

This is what I call a “doorknob argument”. And you know what they say about one man’s doorknob. I think they’re beautiful–I think they look like white-winged angels. No matter what you think, you can’t seriously propose to found a serious argument on aesthetic terms. It’s silly and time wasting. Let’s move on.

And Finally…

Energy security is economic and national security. Even Jimmy Carter (!) knew this when he tried to turn the DOE into a department that did something other than design nuclear warheads. Our dependence on oil has led us into a strategic alliance with people that many Americans are suspicious of, like the House of Saud, Israel, and entanglements in other corners of the world that honestly, it would just be better to have stayed out of.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can read what the opponents have to say here. If you’re interested in what the supporters, like me, have to say, you can read here. And if, at the end of things, you come around to the idea that this country has a chance to DO SOMETHING positive about our deleterious addiction to foreign oil, then contact Senator Ted Kennedy and Congressman Bill Delahunt and tell them to support the Cape Wind project now!