IRHS students present research on impact of wind farms 

“After the students started to research, the entire class – 100 percent – shifted toward the negative impacts far outweighing the positive impacts.”

A group of Indian River High School students, charged with researching the potential impacts of wind farms off the coast of Maryland, recently presented their findings to Fenwick Island officials and residents.

The students – juniors and seniors from Jordan O’Boyle’s Engineering Design & Development class – gave their presentation during a Fenwick Island Town Council meeting on Friday, Sept. 27.

Their findings focused on a number of aspects of wind farm impacts, including research on tourism, potential failures during hurricanes, energy costs, reliability issues and potential negative impacts on wildlife and national security.

“I was so, so impressed” with the students’ efforts, said Fenwick Island Mayor Natalie Madgeburger.

She said she was approached about the class presenting their findings, and after meeting with O’Boyle and the students, invited them to the council meeting.

O’Boyle explained, “About two weeks ago, I gave a project to the class to have a mock stakeholder meeting of the positive and negative impacts of the offshore wind that’s being proposed here.

“Remarkably, after the students started to research, the entire class – 100 percent – shifted toward the negative impacts far outweighing the positive impacts of offshore wind off our coast.”

Student Nolan Sarafa said, “Our goal as a class is to make the government officials and the general public aware of the impacts of offshore wind-farming.”

Sarafa kicked off the presentation by sharing that his research on cost-effective alternatives to offshore wind. His research, he said, showed that planting six trees can eliminate up to one ton of carbon dioxide emissions annually. One cost-effective-alternative energy source, he said, is solar power, which can eliminate carbon emissions, also known as greenhouse gas emissions.

One solar panel can eliminate 4.2 tons of carbon emissions annually, at a cost of about $350 per panel, Sarafa said.

Ernest Barnes presented his research on costs of wind turbines versus other forms of energy production, concluding that wind turbines “make no sense” as a source of cost-effective energy. A factor in the cost-effectiveness, he said, is that wind turbine production is “unreliable and would be dependent on the wind speed.”

He combined natural gas only, wind turbines only and a combination of the two sources. Natural gas only, Barnes said, would still be by far the cheapest source of energy at 3.33 cents per kilowatt. Offshore wind only, he said, would cost 11.59 cents per kilowatt, while the combination of gas and wind would cost $13.65 per kilowatt.

Costs associated with wind turbine construction were the focus of Thomas Foreman’s research. Construction of the 116 currently proposed turbines, each with 110-foot-long blades, would be more than $1 billion, Foreman said.

Students Dean Smith and Michael Peranteau presented their research on turbine maintenance and failures, noting that wind turbines require quite a bit of maintenance, and accessing them for that maintenance is difficult when they are located in the ocean. The life span of each turbine is about 25 years.

“During high winds, they can destroy themselves,” Smith said.

Landon Arauz focused his research on the visibility of the wind turbines and the impact that could have on tourism.

“A lot of people were informed that these turbines wouldn’t be visible from the shore,” Arauz said. “Well, they will be very visible, as they’re about 1,000 feet tall and only 10 to 13 miles offshore,” he said.

“It gives us an industrial look,” said the Ocean View resident. “People don’t want to go to the beach and see windmills offshore.” He added that his research leads him to believe that “it’s going to cause businesses to suffer, natural landscapes to suffer. The installation of the turbines, he said, “makes a lot of noise, disturbs the sea life. The locals that live near the beach are going to hear this. … It’s just not going to be very good.”

Arauz included parts of a University of Delaware survey of 47 beachgoers on the subject of wind turbines, showing that 17.4 percent said, “They wouldn’t come back.” About 27 percent of those surveyed said “they wouldn’t enjoy their vacation very much” if there were wind turbines visible from the shore.

Wind turbine failure during hurricanes was the subject of senior Quinton Ashman’s research. A Category 2 hurricane, he said, would likely wipe out about 6 percent of ocean wind turbines. A Category 2 hurricane has sustained winds of 96 to 110 mph. The turbines planned for the Maryland project will be fixed, rather than floating, and would be “more likely to snap in the wind” than floating turbines, Ashman said.

Such failures can cause dangerous situations and debris, Ashman said, such as “floating chunks and toxic chemicals.”

Maribella DiCenzo noted during her part of the presentation that wind turbine reliability during blackouts would not be ideal. She referred to a winter storm in Texas in 2021, noting that while wind turbine energy use was high before the storm, “after, they switched to natural gas.”

Negative impacts of wind turbines on wildlife was the subject of Ocean View resident Travis Gosnell’s research. Whale echolocation, he said, is disrupted by vibrations in the turbines. The scallop population offshore from New England has suffered in the wake of wind turbine construction there, Gosnell said.

He also noted that wind turbines could have a negative impact on the fishing industry, “because fisherman will not be able to navigate through the wind turbine areas. It affects offshore fisheries, both commercial and sport,” Gosnell said.

The beach at 3Rs and the Indian River Bay will likely see impacts from cables crossing through them to reach inland power stations, he said.

Military and security issues around the wind turbine project were the focus of Nolan Miller’s research.

“Turbines built in military-use waterways would affect military training, search-and-rescue operations, along with screwing up the navigation equipment on Coast Guard vessels,” Miller said. “Increased demand for Coast Guard services,” Miller said, would bring with it $20 million in increased expenses for the Coast Guard, which would likely be passed on to taxpayers.

“It’s also worth noting that the company that owns U.S. Wind is an Italian company,” Miller said, which could “make the electrical grid vulnerable” to attacks.

Sonar scanning capabilities offshore would also be impacted by the construction of wind turbines offshore, Miller said.

Wrapping up the presentation, Sarafa delivered what he called “our class’ message: The offshore wind project has a serious possibility to cause catastrophic impacts. But we can stop this plan,” Sarafa said. “Every citizen of Delaware and Maryland must begin preparing for these impacts and the trickle-down effects of the wind turbines.”

The students received a standing ovation from the audience at the town council meeting, with Magdeburger thanking them, calling their research “really impressive” and noting that the Town “has been fighting this fight for a number of years.”