OCEAN CITY — Following a five-hour-plus public hearing on the issue last month, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) late last week issued a pair of orders granting evidentiary hearings strictly limited to the potential turbine size of two offshore wind energy projects.
In 2017, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) approved two offshore wind energy projects off the coast of Ocean City. Technically, the PSC awarded Offshore Renewable Energy Credits (ORECs) to the two companies seeking to develop wind farms off the coast of the resort including the US Wind project and the Skipjack project. The awarding of ORECs was a necessary first step in what has become a lengthy approval process.
However, with advancements in technology, the height of the proposed turbines has increased exponentially since the original PSC approval in 2017, prompting Ocean City officials and the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) last fall to request a re-opening of the original approval proceedings. As a result of that request, the PSC on Jan, 18 held a public hearing on the issue of the increased size of the proposed turbines for both project.
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2 comments:
The only concern that I am hearing is about the height. The blades are about the length of a 747 wing, weigh over 11,000 lbs and are made of mostly fiberglass. They are incredibly strong so that they will withstand hurricane force winds and as such are very difficult to crush. They end up in landfills.
Now here is the question for yo: Whose landfill are these old blades going into? These cannot be recycled and are extremely difficult to break down. You had better have a plan in place before these things are put up.
And it gets more idiotic as time passes 12:40 because technology is changing as we speak.When these are built,the suppliers will attempt to provide their old technology/inventory for the project vs losing a fortune & providing state of the art technology.
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