That thing about lighter-and-afloat is a carbon-reducing twofer. Nations other than the US were already diving into the new floating offshore wind market, lured by the appeal of stronger winds and the ability to locate offshore wind farms in deep waters, farther offshore and out of sight from shoreline tourist spots and other coastal communities.Īmong several projects aimed at vaulting the US from laggard to leader during the Trump administration, the Energy Department launched the ATLANTIS project, for “ Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control.” The idea of floating turbines on the water instead of fixing them into the sea bed is a relatively new one, but the floating turbine supply chain was already revving up by the time Trump took office.
#Floating foundation concept tlp gicon series
Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Float Into The Pictureįor all the talk about clean coal, the domestic thermal coal workforce was already cut off at the knees by 2016, and the Trump administration dealt blow after blow with a series of projects aimed at boosting the domestic wind industry along with other renewables. Mountaintop coal removal swooped in during the 21st century to mop up the rest. There never was anything #45 could do about coal jobs, considering that the march of mechanization had already stripped tens of thousands of coal jobs all throughout the 20th century, as an ever-increasing array of machines replaced hand labor. He also gave a shoutout to oil, which has pried coal loose from maritime use as well. The omission wouldn’t have attracted much media attention, but in the same speech he touted natural gas, which has been pushing coal out of the US generation market in recent years. The campaign promises of 2016 were so much dust in the wind halfway through his tenure, when the former POTUS excluded coal from his 2019 State of the Union address. It was about leveraging race for political purposes on the coattails of an industry notorious for its past exploitation of racial tension among coal miners, and for its increasing exclusion of Black miners in more recent times. The appeal of saving coal jobs was never about saving coal jobs. In the latest development, the Energy Department is shepherding a new floating offshore wind turbine collaboration between GE and the naval engineering firm Glosten, with the aim of pushing the nation’s offshore wind capacity to almost double its current electricity demand. However, like an angry ghost his legacy still haunts the halls of the US Department of Energy, killing off coal jobs with otherworldly precision. The 45th President of the United States has come and gone, and so has his unfulfilled pledge to save the US coal industry.
0 kommentar(er)
