A new proposal has just been approved to build a wind farm about 20 miles offshore from the New Jersey coastline. 96 turbines in total. How will this affect our beaches? Will it improve or hurt the quality of waves and forecasting in our area. Will they build more wind farms along our eastern seaboard? What do you guys thinks. There is an article at Treehugger.com on this matter.
as much as im all for alt energy, theres been studies that show wind turbines and thier effect of marine life, the fish gravitate towards the heat of the turbines which screws with feeding patterns of all fish.. somethin to think about
i saw a diagram of the proposal on a news station, and the mills were something like 1 mile apart from each other. So, I dont think there will be a significant impact on the surf.
I was mostly concerned about the dreadging they will have to do to lay the lines and build the foundations for the mills, along with the potential of oil spills and accidents from the ships that will service the mills. I did not consider the affect on the wildlife which will definetly have an impact, but if the foundations become reef- like they may be able to sustain new forms of sealife. The foundations can also serve as platfoms for more weather and wave forecasting device, but sure 4 eyed fish will not be good either!
supposedly the wind turbines will not have to be maintained much, something like once every 10 years or more. So once they are built the risk for spills will go back down. The effect on marine life doesnt really bother me because as I see it we are not hurting their habitat just changing it. But I dont like what its gonna look like out in the ocean. It changes the whole feel of the open ocean. It could also slow wind speeds due to friction which could also slightly change the wind direction. I dont know if they will create enough friction to do that but then all the data we have been collecting about weather patterns will change and the models will lose their accuracy because of the change.
if you want to talk about butterfly effects, then every building we erect and every dirt road we pave changes the weather, but we are talking about microscale processes. The wind turbines will not change the surface winds to any noticeable effect.
