Boat Travel and Wind Farms

When I had first looked at this issue I was only thinking about the proximity of the turbines to the channels that the boats would be traveling and if it would interfere with recreational boating. But when I did some more research another side of the issue emerged the problem with radar and whether or not the turbines would cause interference with the the radar. The Coat Guard funded a study that would look at the effects of the wind farms on the radar of boats. They put together three different scenarios to look at with different boats going in different directions. The main issue they were looking for was whether larger boats would be able to see smaller boats coming out of the wind farm or if the radar would be affect by the turbines not allowing the larger boats to see them. What the Coast Guard would be worried about the blades of the turbines doing would be side lobes, beam widths and ghost turbines. After the study they determined that there would not be any major problems. They also did address the proximity of the turbines saying that some of the turbines were within 400 yards of shipping channels and suggested moving the turbines to a 3 nautical mile safety zone.

Blue water wind

The use of wind power is something that will be an important part renewable energy. Putting these wind turbines off the coast of Delaware is something that could eventually make a large impact for renewable energy and on the health of the environment. It could be an industry that could really take off and provide jobs for people through out the country. In a way i can understand about the complaint about how they are an eye sore for people walking the beach, but if we want to continue to have power and help improve the environment it is a sacrifice that we will have to make. Some could argue that cities or other developments were not estatically pleasing. What use to be untouched land now has housing developments or strip malls and cities, but we continued to build these things with little to no regard about how it will look after they are built. At lest these turbines will be providing us with a very important resource. People argue that it will not provide that much power and that the wind blows its hardest during off peak hours like at night. But this is something that is still in its infence and it is continueally be dveloped even further and eventually we will be able to get the most out of every watt that we are pulling out of the wind.