NJ Offshore Farms Sucking Wind: Packing Their Bags and Turbine Troubles

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File

One step forward, two steps back, and continuing proof there just might be a Supreme Being in the continuing battle against rodential New Jersey governor Phil Murphy's offshore wind schemes.

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The verminous chief executive and offshore developer Danish wind giant Ørsted came to an agreement to part ways this past May, much to Murphy's displeasure.

...Ørsted and the state of New Jersey announced a settlement today for the two projects the company pulled out of last November.

...Stick a fork in the projects off the Jersey Shore – they are done.

Global offshore wind developer Orsted said Tuesday night that it is pulling out of both of its projects scheduled to be built off the coast of New Jersey, a move that enraged Gov. Phil Murphy and could be a big blow to the state’s renewable energy ambitions.

The Danish company made the announcement after a decision by its board of directors. Both the Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects, which would have had the capacity to produce 2.2 gigawatts of renewable energy, will be scrapped.

NJ's rodential governor, Phil Murphy, angrily clacked his verminous yellow teeth, swore vengeance at his renewable plans being foiled, and that the company would pay dearly for its perfidy.

Murphy's dreams of a NJ coastline forever despoiled by towering turbine-topped windmills were fading fast with Ørsted's strategic retreat in the face of rising interest and materials costs, not to mention their own serious supply chain issues.

By the middle of last month, the paperwork and formalities for both projects were completed, and bottles of hootch were being uncorked all over the state by the citizen activists, congressional members - just folks from all walks of life who'd banded together to raise awareness of, and hound and harass the twin projects into the grave.

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Alas. If those had been the only two farms the allies had to do battle with, they could have cracked good bottles. 

Those quick, celebratory snorts of Andre Cold Duck have been drained in preparation for the next stage, and they've moved on to the next Murphy-endorsed target. But in this confrontation, the resistance might just get an unexpected assist from the developers as the nature of wind's green grift is finally exposing itself.

There seems to be an issue finding these humongous pie-in-the-sky turbines to drive those ginormous blades the project was sold around.

Do tell.

OFFSHORE WIND CHALLENGES — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: Another New Jersey offshore wind project is facing significant uncertainty, again imperiling Gov. Phil Murphy’s clean energy and “green economy” goals. Leading Light Wind, a partnership of Invenergy and co-developer energyRe, is asking state utilities regulators to pause its project while it shops for turbines, the engines that help turn wind into electricity.

As a result, the backers of the largest offshore wind project ever approved in New Jersey do not know how they will generate the power they promised to deliver or how much it will cost. In January, the state Board of Public Utilities tried to reset the state’s then-ailing offshore wind industry by green-lighting ratepayer subsidies for a pair of projects that would provide enough power for 1.8 million homes. The 2,400-megawatt Leading Light Wind project was the larger and costlier of the two. A smaller, 1,342-megawatt project by TotalEnergies subsidiary Attentive Energy still appears to be on track.

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WAIT, WHUT?

This is worth repeating a million times over. The "backers of the largest offshore wind project ever approved in New Jersey..."?

DO NOT KNOW HOW THEY WILL GENERATE THE POWER THEY PROMISED TO DELIVER OR HOW MUCH IT WILL COST

This Pelosian "have to build it to find out" concept seems to be perfectly fine by the Rat Man, but it doesn't sit so well with residents, businesses, and the local officials in the state who are far more intimately involved with the end results of Murphy's vanity projects.

And Leading Light is a massive project with, surprise, a massive price tag attached.

...The project when it won state approval in January 2024 billed itself “as the largest competitively awarded offshore wind project in the U.S.” Being developed in a partnership between Invenergy and energyRe with investors including Blackstone Infrastructure the plan calls for a massive 2.4 GW wind farm to be located approximately 40 miles off the southern New Jersey coast. They won nearly 84,000 acres with a bid of $645 million in the highly competitive 2022 New York Bight auction. New Jersey selected it in January 2024 as one of two projects in its third-round solicitation which was billed as a restart after the disappointment when Ørsted canceled two large projects.

Here we have a case of grand plans falling apart because the underpinnings were all smoke and mirrors to begin with. When the smoke started to clear away, thanks to the Vineyard Wind blade accident earlier in July, well...people got nervous and the apples started tumbling out of the cart.

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...Leading Light was one of two projects chosen in January by the state utilities board. But just three weeks after that approval, one of three major turbine manufacturers, GE Vernova, said it would not announce the kind of turbine Invenergy planned to use in the Leading Light Project, according to the filing with the utilities board.

A turbine made by manufacturer Vestas was deemed unsuitable for the project, and the lone remaining manufacturer, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, told Invenergy in June “that it was substantially increasing the cost of its turbine offering.”

“As a result of these actions, Invenergy is currently without a viable turbine supplier,” it wrote in its filing.

GE Vernova should ring a bell to my regulars as the manufacturer associated with the Nantucket disaster. Vestas is another Danish firm I've written about before who've had tremendous warranty losses over the past year, and they were dropped. That left the Spanish-German firm Siemens Gamesa, which jacked its prices up, perhaps because it was also experiencing financial difficulties.

When you see a chance to recoup a little cha-ching in rough times because you're the last guy standing, you go for it.

The law of supply and demand. Sometimes, it pays off...

In the latest blow to the US offshore wind sector, developer Invenergy has asked to pause a 2.4GW project after its planned turbine supplier GE Vernova axed plans for 18MW machines and second choice Siemens Gamesa “substantially” jacked up its prices.

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...and other times, you get told to pound sand.

All this is good news for the indefatigable and determined opponents for whatever reasons they have joined the resistance. Their efforts and circumstances have combined to hold off the forces of Green grift even though they're already feeling a fair amount of the cost burden for these flights of cultish fancy.

...New Jersey also announced plans to accelerate a scheduled third quarter 2026 round to mid-2025. The state has a goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2035 and 11 GW of offshore wind installed by 2040, but so far has no wind projects approved and under construction.

God willing, the stretch of fortuitous luck will continue, and even more people will join the cause. The ultimate death blow to this insanity would be a Trump victory in November.

That would send the rest of these unicorn fart dreams crashing to the ground. They're shaky enough financially even with all the Biden-HARRIS handouts as it is.

I want to leave you with a 22-minute video on one of my favorite subjects - The #Mathz. You all know how I love to point out when things just don't add up, and I stumbled across the most brilliant, easy-to-follow explanation of why wind was a waste yesterday.


I believe it is well worth your time when you have time. I think I'll wind up using it often for reference. The phenomenal fellow who did it - Paul Burgess - has done an entire series of these, and as I go forward on my little crusade here, I think I've got some more viewing time to schedule.

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John Stossel 8:30 AM | October 12, 2024
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