By Andrew Montford
A few days ago, the BBC’s Roger Harrabin mentioned a new suggestion that instead of cutting up redundant oil rigs, we should simply sink them to the bottom of the sea, where they would become artificial reefs that would encourage a flourishing of marine flora and fauna. Observant readers of his Twitter feed were of course quick to point out that this was exactly what BP had proposed for their Brent Spar platform nearly twenty years ago. At the time there was an outpouring from environmentalists, who accused the oil giant of deliberately polluting the seas. The campaign became truly farcical when Greenpeace made the claim – which environmental correspondents, to a man, failed to challenge – that the platform was full of nuclear waste. This was a truly shameful moment.
The reason I mention this story today is that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy recently published a paper on the potential decommissioning costs of all those offshore wind turbines that they are so keen on installing. The answer is as follows:
The total estimated decommissioning cost is £1.28bn to £3.64bn…
…it was acknowledged that earlier studies on the Levelised Cost of Energy from offshore wind…did not account for decommissioning costs, or the cost of procuring securities.
All of the costs are sunk
Life in the sea is based on no small part on the amount of hard surface that briazoa, corals, and other forms of that type have available. If one goes big game fishing in the Gulf off Louisiana you get to troll past oil rigs, and bottom sport fishing in the Gulf is based on man made reefs formed of old ships cleaned of pollutants and sunk.
We should throw wind turbines into the ocean as fast as we can haul them there. Maybe dump a few in Oroville for good measure.
I imagine you’ll find that the companies which built the turbines will quietly fold once the subsidies stop flowing, so the decomissioning will be a SEP.
It is good for fish though, creates islands where they cant be trawled, and shelter for all kinds of fish from predators. The US in fact has often done this with old ships, and even cars.
“It is good for fish though, creates islands where they cant be trawled”
Good point.
Anthony/Moderators
Brent Spar was a Shell matter, not a BP matter. This ought to be corrected so as not to get the likes of BP up in arms.
See; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Spar
If you thought it was the worst, can it still get worst?
The fundamental principal of regulated utilities has become a game of hide the cost overrun that was most prominent with nuclear power but continues with offshore wind farms.