A federal judge in Washington has declined to prevent Dominion Energy Virginia from constructing its offshore wind turbines, but presumably the underlying legal challenge to the federal permitting process will grind on through the court process. Virginia Mercury reports the basics this morning.
Installation of the first monopiles actually started while the judge was still pondering the petition for an injunction, but getting such an injunction before the actual trial process requires clearing a very high legal hurdle. The plaintiffs claim the project will cause irreversible harm to marine life in the area, including whales, but the truth is evidence either way is lacking.
You cannot tell from the carcass if a dead whale ended up on the beach because of noise from sonar mapping of this construction site, or construction work on previous projects elsewhere. Likewise those who claim the work won’t harm whales cannot prove that negative. The federal regulators actually are of the opinion there is risk but claim the mitigations they have imposed will prove sufficient.
Time will tell on that. What remains is the project’s inordinate cost for the likely energy output, especially if the claimed 25- to 30-year lifespan proves too optimistic, or the project suffers major damage in some future (and long overdue) mid-Atlantic monster hurricane. And Dominion’s project is pretty much the only one which still claims it will be built for the advertised cost, thanks to contracts locked in long ago. Costs are exploding for many other developers.
And the costs discussed publicly continue to ignore the energy elephant in the room, the intermittent nature of wind energy. No wind, no energy, and even off the coast there are times of no wind. That means very expensive back-up power, from huge battery complexes or gas-fired plants that run only when needed. A long wind drought will be crushing for Dominion energy customers.
We ratepayers are stuck with this, and if some unforeseen circumstance does halt the project, we ratepayers will be stuck with paying the sunk cost to date (not a pun). The focus should be on whether Dominion is allowed to build its planned second wave of monster turbines, and the answer to that should be a clear no. But follow the money and you reach a different outcome.
— SDH