The Madness of New York's Climate Con and Its Plan to Cover Upstate with 30-Story High Wind Turbines

Guest Post by Roger Caiazza of Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York.

Rich Ellenbogen sent an email today after receiving a link to a video describing the construction of the Cassadaga Wind Farm in Chautauqua County, New York.  Rich describes the video, provides some background information, and expresses concern about end-of-use disposal.  The email triggered a recollection of an article about a post by Robert Bryce that found the output from the facility was contracted to New England.  I have, in this post, combined Rich’s email with relevant parts of my earlier article.

Ellenbogen is the President [BIO] Allied Converters and frequently copies me on emails that address various issues associated with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act).

I have published other articles by Ellenbogen including a description of his keynote address to the Business Council of New York 2023 Renewable Energy Conference Energy titled: “Energy on Demand as the Life Blood of Business and Entrepreneurship in the State -video here:  Why NY State Must Rethink Its Energy Plan and Ten Suggestions to Help Fix the Problems” and another video presentation he developed describing problems with Climate Act implementation.   He comes to the table as an engineer who truly cares about the environment and as an early adopter of renewable technologies going back to the 1990’s at both his home and business two decades ago.

Overview

The Climate Act established a New York “Net Zero” target (85% reduction in GHG emissions and 15% offset of emissions) by 2050.  It includes an interim 2030 reduction target of a 40% reduction by 2030. Two targets address the electric sector: 70% of the electricity must come from renewable energy by 2030 and all electricity has to be generated be “zero-emissions” resources by 2040.

The Climate Action Council (CAC) was responsible for preparing the Scoping Plan that outlined how to “achieve the State’s bold clean energy and climate agenda.” The Integration Analysis prepared by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and its consultants quantifies the impact of the electrification strategies. 

That material was used to develop the Draft Scoping Plan outline of strategies.  After a year-long review, the Scoping Plan was finalized at the end of 2022.  Since then, the State has been trying to implement the Scoping Plan recommendations through regulations, proceedings, and legislation.

Current projections for land-based wind in New York State in 2040, when all electricity must be generated by “zero-emissions” resources, range from 15,549 MW in the New York Independent System Operator 2023-2042 System & Resource Outlook (State Scenario Capacity Expansion Model Results – No Headroom case) to the 13,096 MW in the latest Integration Analysis. 

In 2021 there were 2,277 MW of land-based wind so in the next 19 years between 13,322 and 10,869 MW more wind capacity is projected.

Ellenbogen Summary

In this section I have edited and reformatted the material in Ellenbogen’s email.

The following video Green Madness – The Waste and Destruction Caused by One Industrial Wind Project  was made by people in western New York whose beautiful countryside has been damaged by industrial wind.

The compelling video shows the massive destruction involved.  For scale here is a satellite view from Bing maps.

Source: Bing Maps Several miles SW of Cherry Creek, NY

Ellenbogen continues by noting what is happening now in New York State is very similar to what occurred in Ontario in 2018 – 2019 that led to a change in the government.  Now, they are tearing down completed wind farms.  It started with a “rebellion” in the rural areas because of the exact same thing that is shown in the video and then progressed to the urban areas when the energy prices spiked. 

Someone else who received the video sent the chart below showing the materials needed to generate one megawatt hour of electricity with the different technologies.  The 20% capacity factor for solar is high for NY State so the Material per MWh will be higher.

Ellenbogen notes upstate residents are not only angry with the amount of material used and the clear-cutting of large amounts of forest but also the net holistic impact on the environment, especially when considering the end of life disposal.  This link documents the issue a town in Minnesota is having with that.

Seriously, this sucks: How a small Minnesota town was left with a giant pile of wind turbine blades Grand Meadow wants someone to get rid of the mess after a failed effort to recycle the massive, worn-out parts.

The following is from an article by Walker Orenstein in the Minnesota Star Tribune states:

GRAND MEADOW, MINN. – Darcy Richardson had big plans for a garden patio enveloped by flowers in her backyard in this little community south of Rochester.

She gave up once the blades arrived.

Trucks dropped off more than 100 fiberglass turbine blades on the empty lot next door in 2020, haphazardly stacked to the edge of Richardson’s property. Almost four years later, the mountain of old wind parts — which is visible on Google Earth — is still there.

Some blades are cracked and stained. Locals say they draw feral cats and foxes and are a safety risk because kids climb on the junk.

They’re also ugly, ruining Richardson’s view, hurting property values and attracting the curiosity of seemingly everyone who drives the highway into town.

Cassadaga Wind Farm Energy Contract

I found the story for this wind farm is even worse.   Robert Bryce, writing on the Real Clear Energy blog described an aspect of New York wind development that I wrote an article  about in June 2020.

Bryce explained how New York is becoming “a wind-energy plantation for New England” with massive projects proposed in the state’s poorest counties.  In particular, he describes one project:

“The 126-megawatt Cassadaga Wind Project is now being built in Chautauqua County, New York’s westernmost county. The project includes 37 turbines, each standing about 500 feet high, spread over 40,000 acres (62 square miles). The project is owned by Innogy, a subsidiary of the Essen, German-based utility E.On.”

On January 18, 2018, the New York Department of Public Service published the Order Granting Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need, With Conditions which approves the application to build the facility.  Buried in this document is the following: “the output of the Facility is contracted for out-of-state purchase”.  Mr. Bryce explains that generation will be credited toward renewable goals in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.  He notes that in an email:

“a spokesperson for Innogy confirmed that the buyer of the power to be produced by Cassadaga is a group of seven New England utilities procured through the New England Clean Energy request for proposals’ in 2016. How will the juice from New York get to New England? It won’t. Instead, the Innogy spokesperson told me that the energy produced by the turbines at Cassadaga ‘will be used to serve local energy requirements in areas surrounding the project. Export to areas outside New York would require dedicated point-to-point transmission lines’.”

Mr. Bryce also reviewed data published by the Department of Energy and the New England Power Pool to look the overall picture.  He found that “of the nearly 4 million megawatt-hours of wind energy produced in New York in 2018, the state exported 1.2 million megawatt-hours, or 30 percent, to New England. When the Cassadaga wind project begins operating, it will likely add another 364,000 megawatt-hours per year in renewable-energy credits to that export total”.

As a result, the Cassadaga Wind Farm cannot be considered as part of the renewable energy that should not be included in the Climate Act renewable energy credit claims because that would be double counting.  I have no idea how many other NY facilities have renewable energy credit agreements with New England, but I bet it is not zero.

The Cassadaga permit application approval Order Granting Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need, With Conditions noted that the output of the facility will be credited out-of-state:

“As the Examiners demonstrated, the goals of the State Energy Plan are not restricted to renewable electricity consumed within the state, but are also oriented toward national and international goals of reducing carbon and transforming the energy industry. For that reason, the Examiners’ finding was not changed by the fact that the output of the Facility is contracted for out-of-state purchase. This conclusion is bolstered by the decision of the Appellate Decision in a previous Article X proceeding that production of electricity within the state is beneficial irrespective of the contract path of the output. No party took exception to the RD’s proposed findings and determinations on this issue, and we adopt them.”

Conclusion

There are 37 wind turbines in the Cassadaga project.  There are 27 Nordex N117 turbines rated at 3.675 MW and 10 Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy G114-2.625 MW turbines rated at 2.625 MW.  Recall that the NYISO Resource Outlook and the Integration Analysis have projected that between 13,322 and 10,869 MW more wind capacity will be needed.  That means that there will be at least 2,958 new turbines and could be as many as 5,075 turbines.  That means impacts on the order of 100 times those shown in the video will be coming soon to New York State.

I have yet to see any acknowledgement of this kind of contract’s impact on Climate Act renewable energy accounting. This is another complication ignored by the Scoping Plan implementation program. Acknowledgement of the issue would make compliance harder so it is not surprising that it has been ignored.

It never ceases to amaze me how every single aspect of the Climate Act transition is more complicated and uncertain than acknowledged by the Hochul Administration. Those factors certainly will add to the ultimate costs and make it less likely that the political aspirations can overcome reality. This is madness.

#ClimateAct #NewYork #Climate #Ontario #Wind #EnergySecurity #Risks #Blackouts #Vulnerability

Roger Caiazza blogs on New York energy and environmental issues at Pragmatic Environmentalist of New York.  This post represents his opinion alone and not the opinion of his previous employers or any other company with which he has been associated. Roger has followed the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (Climate Act) since it was first proposed, submitted comments on the Climate Act implementation plan, and has written over 450 articles about New York’s net-zero transition.