GLOW Myths vs Facts

Great Lakes Offshore Wind (GLOW)
Myths vs facts

MYTH: There will be no or limited opportunity for public comment on the Great Lakes Offshore Wind (GLOW) project.

FACT: NYPA understands the importance of establishing partnerships with local communities to build a successful wind project. The New York Power Authority (NYPA) has and will continue to meet with governmental, community, business and environmental organizations from the Lake Erie and the Lake Ontario region in an open and inclusive process to provide status updates and receive feedback. In addition, the NYPA Request for Proposals (RFP) requires submission of long-term community outreach plans. Once a specific project(s) is selected, NYPA intends to go beyond the requirements for public hearings, required by government entities, to reach as broad an audience as possible who are interested and involved in the project.

NYPA’s Web site is constantly updated with new and interesting information on the GLOW project and should be checked regularly for new posting. It also provides an opportunity for public input.

MYTH: There will be 1,000 to 2,000 turbines built for the GLOW project.
FACT: The proposed wind project capacity for GLOW is between 120 megawatts (MW) up to a maximum total of 500 MW. Using the standard 3 MW turbine size, the minimum number of turbines would be 40 with the maximum total being 166.

MYTH: The project will bring no economic benefits to our region.
FACT: Local economies in Western New York and around the state will benefit from short- and long-term economic development opportunities. The NYPA RFP requires proposals to provide information on how local labor, materials and services would be used during construction, operation and maintenance. The RFP also seeks plans for potential development of wind component manufacturing in New York State especially in regions close to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. NYPA has and will continue to meet with local economic development agencies to inform them about programs and incentives available to businesses interested in wind power development opportunities.

NYPA has established an online registry to give businesses the opportunity to list their information to help make their interest known to potential wind project developers. That registry can be accessed at www.nypa.gov/glowbusinessregistry.

MYTH: The project will only create short-term jobs.
FACT: Jobs will be created throughout the life of the wind project. This includes pre-construction project planning and field investigations, component manufacturing and assembly, construction, and operations and maintenance. A study by the Renewable Energy Policy Project (http://www.repp.org/wind_turbine_dev.htm ) has estimates of the average number of jobs created by the wind power industry as a function of project size.

MYTH: The project will tarnish shoreline views.
FACT: The view of the GLOW project will depend on many factors, including where the project is located, the size of the turbines, how close they are to shore, shoreline vegetation, and weather conditions like haze, fog, cloud cover and precipitation, that vary throughout the year. Wind farm developers have computer-modeling tools that accurately depict virtual views of a proposed project from points on the shoreline. Careful design of a wind project can help alleviate many visual concerns. It is understandable, however, that personal opinions will vary on the aesthetics of an offshore wind project.

MYTH: The project will destroy fishing habitats.
FACT: Experiences with offshore projects in Europe show just the opposite. In fact, a 2006 study conducted by the Danish Energy Authority entitled “Offshore Wind Farms and the Environment: Danish Experiences from Horns Rev and Nysted” (http://193.88.185.141/Graphics/Publikationer/
Havvindmoeller/Offshore_wind_farms_nov06/
html/chapter01.htm) reports that these projects “have had very little impact on the environment, neither during their construction nor during the operational phases.” Artificial reef effects from wind turbine structures can be expected to have a positive effect on fish communities.

MYTH: Sailors, boaters and commercial fishermen will be unable to travel around the turbines.
FACT: It is general practice within existing European offshore wind projects for vessels, not restricted to shipping lanes, to travel between wind turbines. NYPA anticipates that the same will be true for the GLOW project. The U.S. Coast Guard, however, will have ultimate responsibility for defining safety ranges around the turbines and the aids to navigation for the wind project, and to define any other project-related navigational guidelines. Whether it is the Coast Guard or another agency that eventually establishes appropriate safety zones, NYPA will follow their rulings. As an example, 3 MW turbine structures are usually spaced 700 meters (2,100 feet) apart. A wind farm off Great Britain has a safety zone of 50 meter (150 feet) radius around each turbine structure, which was considered ample. See a description of this wind farm at http://www.vattenfall.com/en/file/kentish-flats---offshore-wind_8459962.pdf

MYTH: The presence of heavy ice conditions makes it impossible to site wind turbines in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
FACT: While the construction of offshore wind turbines in freshwater where ice conditions occur presents unique challenges, much has been learned about the effects of ice conditions on existing offshore wind projects from installations in saltwater. Existing offshore projects exposed to ice conditions in the ocean have demonstrated that turbine foundations can be designed to withstand certain types of ice formations. Typically the foundation designs incorporate ice cones structures as a means to reduce the pressures of the ice on the turbine structure. It is common practice to bury any underwater cable in an appropriately defined trench dug along a lakebed to protect against cable damage.

How each of these methods, ice cones structures and defined cable trenching, and other methods, could be employed to ameliorate against ice will be determined based on site specific locations for the turbines and cables. In addition, as ice conditions vary widely across the Great Lakes, the characteristics of the ice conditions where a project might be located must be taken into consideration when designing turbine foundations and locating cables.

MYTH: The transmission cable and turbines will leak oil into the lakes.
FACT: The transmission cable is a solid cable that contains no oil or other mechanical fluids; therefore it cannot leak. Though the chances of a leak from a turbine are remote, each system within the wind farm possesses safeguards to ensure that if a leak does occur, it will not be discharged into the external environment. The structural components of wind turbines and substations are designed to serve as emergency reservoirs to completely capture all of the fluids that could potentially leak. Additionally, if a small leak should occur during maintenance activities, the service vessels are outfitted with equipment to control and clean it up. The NYPA RFP requires developers to include, in their proposals, a remediation plan to address the possibility of a leak.

MYTH: The project’s wind turbines will take up too much space on the lake.
FACT: The proposed wind project capacity is between 120 MW up to a maximum total of 500 MW. It is anticipated to be spread out over an area of between 10 and 42 square miles. This compares to a combined area of over 4,100 square miles available in the New York State waters of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. And it’s possible that the arrays will be established in multiple locations.

MYTH: Wind turbines kill birds.
FACT: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the impact of wind turbines on birds is extremely low (less than 1 out of 30,000 human-related bird deaths) compared to other human-related causes, such as buildings, communications towers, traffic and house pets. Numerous bird studies of existing wind projects, both on land and offshore, have been conducted throughout the world and reached similar conclusions. Conventional fuels used in power generation contribute to air and water pollution that can have far greater impact on wildlife and their habitats, the environment, and human health. Regulatory approval for an offshore wind project in the Great Lakes will require prior field research by the selected developer(s) and evaluations by state and federal wildlife agencies.

MYTH: There will be flashing lights all over the lakes if the project is built.
FACT: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for designating lighting requirements for tall structures, including wind turbines, for reasons of aviation safety. The general practice for land-based wind projects has been for the FAA to require lighting on only a portion of the turbine array. Lighting requirements for any offshore project, including the GLOW project, will be assessed as part of the public regulatory and review process after a project has been selected. NYPA will follow what is required as a result of the public process.

Compared with oil transport vessels that routinely travel the Great Lakes, the quantity of mechanical fluids contained within an offshore wind farm is small. Commercial fishing and recreational vessels, all of which use gasoline and oil, also commonly use the lakes and can leak these fluids into the water.