American Oil and Gas Reporter - September 2024 - 81

jump of 27% compared with a year ago.
Producers in July also contributed an additional
$164 million in revenue from
natural gas production taxes. Revenue
collected from oil and natural gas severance
taxes is used help to support and
pay for vital public services across the
Lone Star State, including road and infrastructure
investments, water conservation
projects, schools and education
and first responders.
Additionally, TIPRO points out signals
from oil and gas companies showing efficiency
gains enabling Texas producers to
deliver more energy amid rising production
levels. Advanced technologies, innovations,
new drilling strategies and strong well
performance are allowing Texas producers
to boost output, particularly in energyrich
regions such as the Permian Basin.
Meanwhile, TIPRO notes, recent government
data from the U.S. Energy Information
Administration shows total
oil production from the Permian is at
record levels, topping 6 million barrels
per day, and is forecast to surpass 2023
amounts by nearly 8%. The Permian
Basin accounts for nearly half of U.S.
crude oil production. Overall, EIA's
latest energy outlook says U.S. crude
oil production will average 13.2 million
barrels a day this year, up from an average
of 12.9 MMbbl/d last year.
❒
Offshore Wind Faces Turbine Trouble
AUSTIN, TX.-Claims that offshore
wind generation is a risk-free, unfailingly
benign power source took a hit in July
when a wind turbine off the Nantucket,
Ma., coast broke and closed many of the
famous vacation spot's beaches. Author,
podcaster and filmmaker Robert Bryce
recounted the events and placed them in
a broader context with a late July Substack
article titled " Breaking Wind. "
Bryce's article cites reports in the
Nantucket Current that show the incident
has its genesis in a damaged wind turbine
in the $4 billion Vineyard Wind project
in Massachusetts waters near Nantucket
and Martha's Vinyard. The turbine blade
began deteriorating on the evening of
July 13, the Current says, but project
owners did not notify Nantucket officials
for 48 hours.
The next day, the U.S. Department of
Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental
Enforcement ordered developers
to halt work on the project. Then on July
18, amid the cleanup efforts to retrieve
the 17 cubic yards of debris that already
littered the area's waters and beaches,
the remaining 300-foot portion of the
blade fell into the ocean.
" The Coast Guard warned mariners
in the area of the wind project, which is
located 15 miles south of Nantucket and
Martha's Vineyard, to 'use extreme caution'
when passing through the region, "
Bryce notes. His article then goes on to
make the case for why similar caution is
in order for further expanding offshore
wind projects.
Supersized Challenges
According to Bryce, when it is complete,
Vineyard Wind will entail 62 offshore
wind platforms that can generate a
cumulative capacity of 800 megawatts,
and a few turbines already are installed
and have been producing power since
the beginning of the year.
However, he notes, in the aftermath
of the broken turbine, the Nantucket
Select Board is weighing litigation against
Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure
Partners, which own Vineyard Wind.
Bryce's article also highlights the extent
to which Vineyard Wind sits amid North
Atlantic Right Whale habitat, which is
prompting some local activists to oppose
the project.
Many of the project's technical
headaches are a natural consequence of
modern turbine design, Bryce emphasizes.
" The turbines now being deployed onshore
and offshore are failing far sooner than
expected, " he relates. " Why? They have
gotten too big. Yes, bigger wind turbines
are more efficient than their smaller
cousins. But the larger the turbine, the
more its components get hit by the stresses
that come with their size and weight.
The GE Vernova Haliade-X wind turbine
used at Vineyard Wind stands 260 meters
high and sweeps an area of 38,000 square
meters. That means the turbine captures
wind energy over an area five times larger
than a soccer pitch. "
The components of that apparatus
entail a great deal of mass, he observes.
" Its blades are 107 meters (351 feet) long
and weigh 70 tons, " Bryce observes. " In
addition, the rotor of the massive machine
spans 220 meters. For comparison, the
wingspan of a Boeing 737 is 34 meters.
In other words, the turbines at Vineyard
Wind are nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower
and each of their blades weighs more
than a fully loaded 737. "
And that same Haliade-X rotor equals
the collective wingspans of more than
six 737s, he calculates. " Given the enormity
of the machines, it's no wonder
they are failing, " Bryce suggests.
The article goes on to cite media
reports about other wind turbine malfunctions
in a trio of Oklahoma wind
projects, and notes that earlier this summer
American Electric Power sued GE Vernova
because of turbine flaws. Quoting published
reports on the matter, Bryce notes
that the plaintiffs claim that in only a
few years of commercial operation, the
turbines' major components have begun
to demonstrate numerous material defects
or have stopped operating completely.
The press accounts show that AEP says
the failures have cost it millions of dollars,
while GE Vernova refuses to accept responsibility
to address the defective generators.
They also show that AEP's claim
for cash damages also is accompanied by
a quest for a declaratory judgment that
GE Vernova will be liable for any of the
wind turbines' future failures.
" How much is at stake in the AEP v.
GE Vernova litigation? " Bryce poses.
" According to one report, the turbines in
question have a capacity of 1.5 gigawatts
and cost $6.4 billion. Thus, it's easy to
imagine that GE Vernova could be on the
hook for hundreds of millions of dollars
in losses. Furthermore, those losses may
be only part of the company's long-term
liabilities. "
Bryce notes that GE Vernova is by
no means the only wind turbine manufacturer
facing such problems. " Germany's
Siemens Energy also has announced
it would take a $2.4 billion
loss on its wind business due to quality
problems with its wind turbines, " he
points out. " And remember, these failures
and losses are happening with onshore
wind turbines. The looming operation
and maintenance costs for offshore wind
will be astronomical. "
A Bad Bet
Predictions that such massive wind
turbines may not be suitable for offshore
environments have by no means been
limited to skeptics of alternative energy,
Bryce notes.
" Among the most disgusting aspects
of the offshore wind scam-including
the fact that foreign companies are collecting
billions of dollars in tax credits
so they can industrialize our oceans and
do harm to our fisheries, and the critically
endangered North Atlantic Right Whale-
is that the current disaster was easily
foreseen, " he assesses, noting that in
March 2023 at the CERAWeek energy
SEPTEMBER 2024 81
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