Is Russia Preparing to Attack Offshore Wind Turbine Infrastructure?

Essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Breitbart; According to a joint investigation by Norwegian journalists, the Russian spy trawlers are back – and this time the are mapping offshore infrastructure, including wind turbine cables.

The spy ships

BETH MØRCH PETTERSEN  Journalist

PUBLISHED APR 19 AT 14:00

The radio on board the fishing vessel “Lira” is from the days of the Cold War. In Cyrillic script, it is marked Б3-28.

In the past year, NRK together with the Nordic public broadcasters Danmarks Radio (DR), Sveriges Television (SVT) and Finnish Yle have used open traffic data to map how Russian shipping traffic can be used for espionage in the Nordics. It comes out in the Brennpunkt documentary The Shadow War .

A systematic review of the tracks shows that at least 50 ships for ten years have had the opportunity to collect information in secret.

On the table in front of researcher Ståle Ulriksen at the Naval Academy are dozens of sheets from our mapping. The sheets show the movements of ships we have investigated.

The traces on the maps show that they suddenly appear when there has been a NATO exercise. They were close when important fiber cables were cut off Vesterålen and damaged off Svalbard last year.

May have prepared sabotage

In inland Danish waters, a white government research ship sails near an offshore wind farm. Several sources Danmarks Radio (DR) has spoken to believe that the Russian “Admiral Vladimirsky” is also being used for intelligence work.

According to intelligence sources and experts, a Russian military underwater program, called GUGI, is currently mapping the waters of the Nordic region. They collect information about power and internet cables, offshore wind farms, oil and gas pipelines.

Read more (Norwegian – Translated using Google): https://www.nrk.no/nordland/xl/fiskebater-og-andre-fartoy-fra-russland-kan-drive-spionasje-og-etterretning-i-norge-1.16371100

I’m not sure what to make of this.

It seems implausible that Russia would have to rely on cold war era espionage equipment to coordinate a spying effort. There are much easier ways to communicate.

Russia has access to much better technology for reconnaissance. China has no problem selling technology to Russia, including standalone GPS, microcontrollers, plugin cellular and satellite communicators, model scale engines, exactly the kind of cheap robot technology you need to build sophisticated and stealthy reconnaissance systems out of consumer electronics. I know because I’ve personally built bespoke data gathering devices for clients out of cheap Chinese consumer electronics.

Tech doodling – my attempt to build a robot cockroach

A one-time pad turns any consumer communication device, even a simple mobile telephone, into an impenetrable spy communicator. If you add Steganography to the one time pad, you could even conceal that a one time pad communication was occurring.

If the ships are deliberately behaving suspiciously, it seems much more likely their activity is a political intimidation exercise, a visible presence thinly disguised as military reconnaissance, a sophisticated attempt to intimidate European nations into muting their opposition to Russian policy objectives.

Or it could all be a giant coicindence. The Norwegians could have been fooled by their own data analysis. If you sift enough ship tracks, you are all but guaranteed to find a bunch of tracks which look suspicious.

Whatever is really happening, one thing we can conclude for sure – offshore wind turbines are looking more vulnerable than ever. People who would cut a gas pipeline, whoever they have, would have no problem sabotaging the cables to an entire fleet of offshore wind farms.

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ResourceGuy
April 21, 2023 2:04 pm

When does the cable (nay pipeline) mysteriously break with no answers for months or years?

Leo Smith
Reply to  ResourceGuy
April 22, 2023 5:20 am

That was on Nov 29th 2016 . One of the UK <=> France HVDC cables went down, and no one ever claimed responsibility. A ‘boat’s anchor’ was suspected.

Whoever knows the truth ain’t telling. I always assumed it was a test run by a Russian trawler…

Bryan A
April 21, 2023 2:07 pm

Russia is definitely NOT preparing to attack Offshore Wind Generation Facilities.
Нет
Russia is planning to Accidentally sever undersea power cables … on Accident

Duker
Reply to  Bryan A
April 21, 2023 2:35 pm

They have failures all of their own making

strativarius
April 21, 2023 2:13 pm

So, renewables are not only expensive and useless, they’re highly vulnerable too

Stranded assets?

Nick Stokes
Reply to  strativarius
April 21, 2023 2:18 pm

The offshore oil and gas wells would be much juicier targets.

strativarius
Reply to  Nick Stokes
April 21, 2023 2:47 pm

We haven’t got many of those…

Peta of Newark
Reply to  strativarius
April 21, 2023 5:23 pm

Norway must have a few, = where we get a lot of our (UK) gas from.

Nick is not thinking clearly…
If the cables from from a large windfarm ‘suddenly broke’, and also (say) the French inter-connector, on a cold winter’s night here in the UK, the UK grid is going to completely crash.

There’d be total blackout, heating-out, cooking-out, cars-out, transport-out, security out, telecoms out, interweb-out and an everything-out for days if not a week while the grid is got re-started and back onto its feet.

Sinking a gas platform might make a big firework display but that all – it wouldn’t cripple the UK for a whole week if not longer – we absolutely depend on those interconnectors now.

And just having them lying around on the bottom of the sea was hardly anyone’s brightest idea

Martin Brumby
Reply to  Peta of Newark
April 21, 2023 10:37 pm

Spot on, Polly.

Disputin
Reply to  Peta of Newark
April 22, 2023 2:34 am

Agreed, to a large extent, but North sea pipelines are buried.

Leo Smith
Reply to  Peta of Newark
April 22, 2023 3:29 am

Er wrong. We could lose the entire windfarm network and every single interconnector to Europe and still manage – at a cost.

But that would be paid for by the savings in not paying the windfarms anything at all.

Interconnectors are there not to keep the grid alive, but to make money, They allow arbitrage to happen between various countries electricity costs.

I wish your scenario were true. Nothing would make me laugh harder than XR and the givernment and the vegan ecotards all lingering in the dark with taps that don’t produce water, toilets that dont flush central heating that dont work and refrigerators that render food inedible.

Not to mention no internet or mobile phones.

Nick Stokes
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 21, 2023 5:34 pm

A nuke? That would be a juicy target!

The Real Engineer
Reply to  Eric Worrall
April 22, 2023 2:52 am

Yes true Eric. That is why they take so long to build and cost so much. As everyone now knows, they do not go bang, since Chernobyl. The Russians did that though, total idiots.

Leo Smith
Reply to  The Real Engineer
April 22, 2023 3:33 am

Chernobyl didn’t go bang. It just caught fire and melted down.
Fukushima sorta did, but it was only hydrogen, not a nuclear bang, More like a pop really.. If they had vented the hydrogen it would have been OK.

niceguy12345
Reply to  Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 9:20 pm

What caused the massive blow in the Chernobyl reactor?

MarkW
Reply to  niceguy12345
April 23, 2023 2:23 pm

Hydrogen. It wasn’t a massive blow. Chernobyl didn’t have a containment dome so as soon as the roof collapsed, the particles that were being distributed by the fire were free to reach the atmosphere.

Leo Smith
Reply to  Nick Stokes
April 22, 2023 3:32 am

It is almost impossible to destroy a nuke. The pressure vessel and secondary containment are designed to withstand a full on suicide airliner impact.
And it would be an act of war against NATO if they tried, which would result in instant destruction of all Russian infrastructure.

Drake
Reply to  Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 10:20 am

And of course, Chernobyl had no containment structure.

Drake
Reply to  Nick Stokes
April 22, 2023 10:26 am

In general, so far, nukes are not built many miles offshore where cables, of necessity, must cross shipping channels.

They are also not built only where wind “power” is easier to obtain, thus requiring many miles of transmission lines, each carrying much less “power” than those from concentrated “energy” sources like coal, nuke of gas plants.

Of course lines from legitimate “power” sources, you know those that provide dispatchable electrical power, would need to be repaired or replaced if damaged. Those from unreliable sources, like wind and solar, not so much.

BYW, Nick, why do you support the waste of TRILLIONS of dollars for construction of unreliable “energy” sources, costing the poor those trillions??

MarkW
Reply to  Drake
April 23, 2023 2:24 pm

It’s not so much that Nick cares, rather it’s the people who pay Nick who care.

Leo Smith
Reply to  Nick Stokes
April 22, 2023 5:23 am

Oh dear. Havent you heard of plasible deniability?
One undersea cable went down in 2016 and no one fessed up to having done it,. a ‘dragging anchor’ was suspected, although who would anchor in the middle of the busiest seaway in the world was never explained.

Bob
April 21, 2023 2:26 pm

Fire up all fossil fuel and nuclear power plants and get wind and solar off the grid. The grid is too important for wind and solar to be a part of it.

commieBob
Reply to  Bob
April 22, 2023 7:31 am

Exactly so.

When I was a pup, people worried about national security. For instance, if I remember correctly, every component in military equipment had to have at least two domestic manufacturers.

Later, the thinking seems to have switched. The new idea was that, if every country was sufficiently integrated into the world economy, we would be so interdependent that war would be impossible.

China and Russia are amply demonstrating that we still have to worry about national security.

North America is well endowed with fossil fuels, and if those ever become depleted, there are always Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) to take up the slack. Wind and solar are a fraud and a waste of precious resources.

commieBob
Reply to  commieBob
April 22, 2023 8:23 am

There’s something of an SMR bandwagon going on. example Also, I don’t see much push-back.

Drake
Reply to  commieBob
April 22, 2023 10:44 am

Thanks for the link.

The last mentioned enterprise, South Korea, I would put at the head of the list. They could be producing 10 or more a year ready for shipment to prepared sites quickly because they are a country ruled by free enterprise when it comes to income from exports. They also have the necessary foundry infrastructure.

Walter Sobchak
April 21, 2023 2:30 pm

“Is Russia Preparing to Attack Offshore Wind Turbine Infrastructure?”

Win Win. We are better off for getting rid of those bird chomping eco-crucifixes. And the Russians do the dirty work — for free.

KevinM
April 21, 2023 2:48 pm

a sophisticated attempt to intimidate” … fishing trawlers? … 2023?

Leo Smith
Reply to  KevinM
April 22, 2023 3:37 am

“Fishing trawlers” have always been Russias description of their sophisticated SIGINT vessels that wander the coast of Europe listening for intelligence, and generally spotting whats going on in the way of stuff on te seabed and NATO submarines.
I think it is more posturing like their nuclear threats. Russia more than anybody understands that renewable energy is so unreliable that no one’s grid depends on it.

,

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 5:30 am

“renewable energy is so unreliable that no one’s grid depends on it.”

Good point.

Electrical grids cannot rely on windmills and solar because they don’t generate electricity all the time.

Those electrical grids with the most instrusions by windmills and solar are the most vulnerable to brownouts/blackouts and are the most expensive electricity for consumers.

Without adequate backup (coal, natural gas, nuclear) of windmills and solar, the electrical grids cannot function properly.

Forcing windmills and solar on populations is destroying those populations economies.

Human-caused Climate Change, the biggest science scam in human history, is also the most damaging scam in human history, with no end in sight without clear-thinking leadership that understands that windmills and solar are not viable solutions to our societal energy problems.

There *are* viable solutions to our problems like natural gas and nuclear energy. We should turn to them and abandon windmills and solar as not fit for purpose. Of course, this is hard to do when climate change has become a religion, and has become a battering ram on society used by the radical Left, who, unfortunately, happen to be in control of things at the moment. We won’t get out of this dire attack on civilization until the radical Left is out of political power.

commieBob
Reply to  Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 7:43 am

Q: What has more antennas than a Soviet fishing trawler?
A: Nothing.

Same old, same old … 🙂

JamesB_684
April 21, 2023 2:52 pm

It was the U.S. Biden administration that blew up the gas pipeline.

Dave Fair
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 21, 2023 3:21 pm

Proof?

JamesB_684
Reply to  Dave Fair
April 21, 2023 6:53 pm

No one, outside of those who did it, could provide proof. Victoria Nuland as much as said the pipeline wouldn’t be safe if Russia invaded Ukraine.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 22, 2023 5:30 am

She wasn’t talking about blowing it up.

Dennis Gerald Sandberg
Reply to  Dave Fair
April 21, 2023 11:00 pm

The U.S has such extensive and sophisticated surveillance systems, that they would most likely be able to identify the culprits. The absence of us naming a guilty party lends credence to Biden’s commitment to “make Nord stream go away” if Russia invaded Ukraine. Also, anyone that would authorize such a strike would have to be sufficiently arrogant to be convinced that he/she/whatever could do no wrong. I thought Obama was the only person in current existence that arrogant, but he might have passed it along to his understudy. Gotta wonder.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Dennis Gerald Sandberg
April 22, 2023 5:38 am

“Also, anyone that would authorize such a strike would have to be sufficiently arrogant to be convinced that he/she/whatever could do no wrong. I thought Obama was the only person in current existence that arrogant,”

Joe Biden is certainly in that category.

That doesn’t mean I agree that Biden initiated the hit on the pipeline.

I don’t know who did it, and haven’t seen anyone, other than one author, who claims they do know. I guess I ought to throw Tucker Carlson in there as a believer that the U.S. did it, but fear clouds Tucker’s judgement in this situation, imo, so he is prone to believe anything that comes along that confirms his fears, and Biden blowing up the pipeline fits that perfectly and he seizes upon it as established fact, to confirm that he is in the right, in his own mind. Unfortunately, he presents it as a confirmed fact to his audience, which I would consider disinformation, except I think Tucker really believes it, so he is not intentionally trying to decieve anyone. One can be sincere and wrong at the same time.

MarkW
Reply to  Dennis Gerald Sandberg
April 23, 2023 2:30 pm

And you know this as a fact? Or is that merely what your paranoia tells you to believe?

Loren Wilson
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 21, 2023 9:55 pm

I am not sure that they have a motive. besides, I am not sure they can blow their noses, let alone a pipeline.

Leo Smith
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 22, 2023 3:37 am

Nope.

MarkW
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 23, 2023 2:29 pm

Do you have any evidence of that?
The Russians had more to gain from the disabling of that pipeline. It’s cheap to fix and they are getting billions of dollars worth of propaganda from those who instinctively blame everything on the US.

Janice Moore
April 21, 2023 2:55 pm

Is Russia Preparing to Attack Offshore Wind Turbine Infrastructure?
Ha! Hope so.

Go for it. Do some GOOD for once.

Leo Smith
Reply to  Janice Moore
April 22, 2023 3:40 am

They already have. The lack of gas has completely highlighted the fact that Germany’s renewables were all for show.

People everywhere are signing memoranda of understanding with respect to modular reactors all across Europe.

Renewables aren’t dead, but they are beginning to smell that way.

Frank from NoVA
April 21, 2023 3:15 pm

If the Russians really hate us, the last thing they’re going to do is interfere with our offshore wind installations.

niceguy12345
Reply to  Frank from NoVA
April 21, 2023 4:57 pm

Who hates us more: Russians or Ukrainians?
Who promoted that story?

Several hundred members of the Russian army have fallen ill after digging trenches in a highly-contaminated zone near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

The troops who dug trenches in the “Red Forest” are now reportedly receiving medical treatment in a facility in Gomel, Belarus, after suffering “acute radiation sickness.”

The “Red Forest” is the most contaminated area near the nuclear power plant. The 10-square-kilometer zone earned its name after pine trees in the area turned red because of radiation. The area is considered so highly contaminated that even nuclear plant workers are not allowed to enter.

“Another batch of radiation irradiation of Russian terrorists who captured the Chernobyl zone, was brought to the Belarusian center of radiation medicine in Gomel today,” Yaroslav Yemelianenko, an employee at the Public Council at the State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone management, wrote on Facebook.

https://www.ibtimes.com/russian-soldiers-suffer-acute-radiation-sickness-after-digging-trenches-chernobyl-3457416

Sure, spending a few weeks in a slightly contaminated area is known to produce these effects…

JamesB_684
Reply to  niceguy12345
April 21, 2023 6:57 pm

The fallout from the Chernobyl disaster was locally worse than Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

Watch the HBO special “Chernobyl” or read the detailed report available from http://www.chernobylgallery.com

The Real Engineer
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 22, 2023 2:57 am

Of course it was, a bomb contains little nuclear material, a reactor hundreds of times as much, including many byproducts which are very dangerous. It appears very few people know that.

Leo Smith
Reply to  The Real Engineer
April 22, 2023 4:36 am

It appears that even fewer people know what the actual death toll from radiation caused by ingestion of radioactive materials was, as opposed to radiation of the gamma, x-ray, light, and infrared caused by the explosion itself. Or in the case of Chernobyl, fighting a fire on top of an open hearth reactor .

Practically none, at Hiroshima or at Chernobyl .
Hiroshima was never cleaned up and neither was the area around Chernobyl. People are living in both places.

Remember that a nuclear flash IS radiation – hard gamma radiation in the x-ray, ultraviolet, visible and infrared part of the spectrum. It is perfectly capable of killing you from radiation sickness if it doesnt burn you to a crisp.Or blow you to bits. None of that is present with a reactor accident. Unless its an RBMK Chernobyl style one, where the 75 firefighters died from radiation sickness. No Western reactor with secondary containment could do that and no one died from radiation sickness at 3MI, or Fukushima.

All the hype is about the release of radioactive products, which even in the case of Chernobyl, was remarkably low.
Remember that Uranium and plutonium are not especially dangerous in and of themselves. The final end product of their fission is lead. The fact that there is a lot is not really germane. The ugly stuff is the by products of neutron bombardment – stuff like Iodine 131, which is bioactive and viciously radioactive for a week or two. In fact its the ONLY Chernobyl contaminant that is definitely known to have caused cancers, and pretty quickly too.

Other stuff especially gases like Xenon135 are nasty, but they are so nasty they have decayed in a week

Pripyat residents suffered about 3000 operable and non lethal thyroid cancers post the fire.From Iodine 131 ingestion

So 75 dead at Chernobyl and 3000 cancers against 140,000 dead of whom maybe 10-20,000 were from radiation sickness and no one really suffered from contaminants – because they were already dead from massive radiation or blast.

Remember also that the more dangerous a radioactive contaminant is, the quicker it has gone. What is left long term is not especially deadly. The fear in the 1960s with atomic tests was in the medium term isotopes like caesium 137 (30 year half life) and strontium 90 (half life 28 years) that were bioactive and around for several hundred years.

However subsequent research by the likes of e.g. Wade Allison has established that the danger from radiation is not chronic exposure to low level radiation, it is single occurrence peak doses above 200mSv in the space of a short time that are the danger. And in particular the greatest chance of getting cancer from radiation is if you receive radiotherapy which is a lethal dose of radiation applied to a (hopefully) very small area of the body.

Which means that what everybody thinks they know about radiation, nuclear weaponss and atomic power is probably wrong. A combination of lack of data and deliberate scaremongering by all sides in the cold war, and indeed those who stand to lose from nuclear power – Big Oil and Gas – played up the dangers to a point where reason was pushed aside.

And Hollywood likes a good scarefest. Bums on box office seats.

Drake
Reply to  Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 7:02 pm

COAL was the power provider most likely to lose to nukes.

In the 80s coal was out producing oil and gas by double and was 50% of total electrical production.

By 1990, Nukes were out producing gas and oil combined and coal was well over 50% of the total.

I believe, with no proof, that all the anti-nuke protests of the 80s and 90 were funded by “big coal”.

After the 70s “Big oil and gas” had trouble just providing transportation, industrial and home supplies, AND there was a law passed that stopped new natural gas plants from being built. (The Fuel Use Act of 1978)

In general gas was just for peakers before fracking and the EPA made it the #1 source of new generation to make up for the unreliable output of “renewables”.

Leo Smith
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 22, 2023 3:58 am

Not even locally. Mostly because in order to maximise blast damage the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were detonated as airbursts. So anyone who might have otherwise died from radio nuclides had already been flash fried or blown to bits.

In fact 75 people died of radiation at Chernobyl. Hiroshima totalled 140,000 estimated, with rather a lot of those dying up to a couple of months later from radiation sickness. No one seems to have accurate figures.

The fact that a reactor contains ~50 tonnes of uranium of not weapons grade and a Hiroshima style bomb only a tonne or so does not make it more dangerous. The bomb would have more U235 or plutonium in it, and most of it gets converted into radiation or highly radioactive short lived by products of one sort or another.

niceguy12345
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 22, 2023 9:54 am

OK comparative guy.
How serious was “fallout” for the Japanese population? How many were injured?

MarkW
Reply to  JamesB_684
April 23, 2023 2:37 pm

People were living in the area around the Hiroshima and Nagasaki within weeks of the explosions. The only people who ever suffered radiation sicknesses were those who exposed themselves to, or worse, drank the black rain that occurred right after the explosions.

Leo Smith
Reply to  niceguy12345
April 22, 2023 3:45 am

Er no, Most of the world is as ‘contaminated’ as the area around Chernobyl. There are no effects from spending time in a slightly contaminated area. In fact you need radiation levels up around 200mSv in a single dose to come anywhere near a cancer risk, and a lot more to go down with radiation sickness.

radiation.png
niceguy12345
Reply to  Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 9:58 am

No to what?
No to the news from the local powers in Ukraine?

MarkW
Reply to  niceguy12345
April 23, 2023 2:35 pm

Close enough to impossible that the difference is hard to measure.

abolition man
April 21, 2023 3:56 pm

Why would Russia attack our offshore infrastructure? That’s like saving a sworn enemy who’s in the midst of committing suicide!
That’s as crazy as China launching an attack on the US! Why would they do something so dangerous when they can easily buy all the politicians they need to do the work for them!?

Leo Smith
Reply to  abolition man
April 22, 2023 4:43 am

We know that. Russia knows that, but most people BelieveInRenewables™. So the Putin thinking is that its another threat that can be applied to European public opinion, like waving his nuclear willy, that will cause support for Ukraine to fall away, in which case they will run out of weapons and cash and he can walk all the way to Berlin.

I highly recommend Peruns video podcast on hybrid war techniques.

It makes a lot of sense of what is going on

dk_
April 21, 2023 4:03 pm

Russians? After Nordstream? Propaganda prebunking engaged: lookout, Norway, Biden is gunning for your your wind farms!

It doesnot add up
April 21, 2023 5:17 pm

The Russians have fairly sophisticated ROVs, and have been monitoring cables for a long time. Take a look at the capabilities and some of the mapped actions of the Yantar:

http://www.hisutton.com/Yantar.html

J Boles
April 21, 2023 5:25 pm

How about dolphins with bombs, no accident, they will do it on porpoise!

It doesnot add up
Reply to  J Boles
April 21, 2023 6:55 pm

There is always the Beluga whale – no joke.

http://www.hisutton.com/Russia_Navy_Beluga_Whale.html

Peter C.
Reply to  J Boles
April 26, 2023 9:10 am

Sharks with fricking lasers?

Peta of Newark
April 21, 2023 5:39 pm

Quote1:”The traces on the maps show that they suddenly appear when there has been a NATO exercise. 

So what was the point of the exercise?
NATO were showing off, demonstrating to the world how big their collective willy is and doing so in a place where Russia were going to see.

Some might call that ‘direct intimidation’ and it always is when the Chinese Navy do anything similar
On top of that what is the point of having an ‘exercise’ if no-one comes to watch.
e.g. The big NATO base at Mildenhall has a purpose built ‘viewing area’ so if ‘interested parties’ can come and watch The Big Willies playing with themselves in their stealth bombers & Tomcats

By Norwegian Logic, are the visiting people, sitting in cars munching their sandwiches and peering though binoculars, planning on sabotaging Mildenhall, the US or NATO?

Quote2:” They were close when important fiber cables were cut off Vesterålen and damaged off Svalbard last year.

Maybe you should have put them somewhere a little safer and less vulnerable to real actual accidents

Overall this is a story about deeply embedded mistrust, projection and out of control paranoia.

None of it can ‘end well’

Old.George
April 21, 2023 6:19 pm

There is a de facto energy war going on with Russia. The EU, USA and a few others have made it policy to convert to unreliable energy as soon as possible. Russia, China, India and a few others eschew unreliable energy.
An inventory of our energy producers is simple intelligence activity. With this inventory in their hands there is a possibility of them destroying windfarms. (What the military call a ‘threat’ referring to capability, not intent.) But why would they? They want us to spend too much on unreliables. This means their fossil fuels will be in high demand.
The alternative to unreliables is not only fossil fuels but also nuclear. Modular nuclear is safe; nothing to fear. In a decade or less no fossil fuels nor unreliable energy would be needed for the electric grid. Fossil fuels might be needed for air transport but freighters could, like submarines, have nuclear power. Ground transport might well include fossil fuels and electric. Gasoline for the low earner, electric required by law for the wealthy 1%.
It is bad governance to eliminate a reliable energy source or distribution network without a replacement guaranteed to be at least as reliable. After all, civilization requires energy. Without it … anarchy.

lesonline3@gmail.com
April 21, 2023 6:48 pm

“Two weeks to flatten Russia”
has provoked Russia to
“Two weeks to flatten the Wind Turbines”…

“We will fight The Russians to the last Western European !” (updating Churchill)…

lesonline3@gmail.com
April 21, 2023 6:57 pm

Nordstream pipelines for Russian gas to Western Europe may have remained a pipedream had Syria, back around 2011, agreed the build of a gas pipeline through it to send gas to Europe….So it’s all Syria’s fault !
To get a change of mind, regime change was initiated…With Europe committed to Russian gas Russia went to Syria’s assistance, as regime change could have given the go-ahead to competition to Nordstream…
So it’s all Syria’d Fault !!

Pat from Kerbob
April 21, 2023 8:03 pm

Sharks with lasers.
Saw it in a movie

John Oliver
April 21, 2023 8:10 pm

Even though this is a little off topic – this article igot me thinking about the potentially huge enemy covert force that could be entering through the wide open US ( and now northern) border! We are now talking about maybe a division size force or more who knows what’s possible.

Think of the damage and chaos well trained teams of special forces could cause. They could for example move in and out of the civilian population as they reek havoc with our infrastructure , damage military assets, bring the economy to a screeching halt. And it might be difficult at first to determine which “enemy” sent them. We need to impeach everybody in the Biden administration and get them out of there before something bad happens to us.

John Oliver
Reply to  John Oliver
April 21, 2023 8:16 pm

Has no one in national security though about this?

Disputin
Reply to  John Oliver
April 22, 2023 2:45 am

Don’t be silly, John. Of course they haven’t.

Leo Smith
Reply to  John Oliver
April 22, 2023 4:55 am

Even if they have, they wer overruled by the green blob pwned employees in government

StuM
Reply to  John Oliver
April 22, 2023 12:10 am

“as they reek havoc with our infrastructure”

That would be a real stinky thing to do 🙂

Leo Smith
Reply to  StuM
April 22, 2023 4:57 am

Dont worry, it will be a lightening attack. The cables will float to the surface….and nothing will brake…🙂

mikelowe2013
April 21, 2023 8:34 pm

Many of we sensible non-brainwashed folk would applaud that! They were a complete waste of time as there is no climate emergency which justified their construction. However, Russia and China would see them as aiding in the destruction of Western civilisation, so are unlikely to touch them.

Ian_e
Reply to  mikelowe2013
April 22, 2023 5:53 am

And, IF there were a climate emergency, such constructions would be massively inappropriate taking much needed money away from helping us deal with any negative consequences. The only thing greens about these turbines and their supporters is their gills.

The Real Engineer
April 22, 2023 2:47 am

Russia is not looking to start a war with Nato, in effect it has already lost. It cannot afford to have Moscow bombed flat on the first day (with conventional force) as the planes and bombs are only a few miles away. This is simple politics, and is not intended to do anything useful except worry the weak. It should, however, make our politicians aware of the fragility of their energy plans, should a few terrorists decide to have a go. These offshore assets are very difficult to protect adequately.

Drake
Reply to  The Real Engineer
April 22, 2023 8:11 pm

How do you adequately protect worthless unreliably generation capacity?

By NOT endangering a single human being!

Hatter Eggburn
Reply to  The Real Engineer
April 23, 2023 3:36 am

And I assume that the US CAN afford for NY and Washington etc. bombed flat in minutes by Kinshal hypersonic missiles? O yes I was forgetting – the US has so much more land surface than Russia so they will surely win a nuclear exchange.

Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 3:23 am

Knowing roughly where the cables run is not the same as identfying the perfect place to drop an anchor, as it is believed has already been done to one undersea cable.

Frankly I hope they do wreck all of the offshore wind, as it would become immediately apparent as to how little we actually need any of it. And with luck the insurance companies wouldn’t pay out.

mikewaite
Reply to  Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 5:28 am

Rarely, if ever, disagree with you , Leo , but “how little we actually need it”? At time of writing we are getting 16% from wind (some onshore of course) and 12% by cable from France . And soon the 17% from solar will disappear. The threat from the russians is nonsense of course to most people , but the mentally disadvantaged who run the country will be whimpering in fear no doubt . Good thing if it means that they start to question the wisdom of relying on offshore wind and interconnectors , but not so good if they decide to plaster the National Parks (which tend to be the windiest places in England) with those awful constructions. .

Joao Martins
April 22, 2023 4:05 am

Is Russia Preparing to Attack Offshore Wind Turbine Infrastructure?
An emphatic “NO”!

I guess that the Russians are not as dumb as to waste their explosives in destroying structures that contribute only marginally to the western economy… There are certainly able to find more “efficient” uses for them.

Leo Smith
April 22, 2023 5:12 am

I see a lot of comments of the ‘why on earth would Russia want to take out stuff that doesn’t work anyway’ variety.
The best explanation is this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUBTyAZg5OA

In short Russia is not fighting just a conventional war, it’s main weapon is and always has been since the time of Stalin, propaganda and lies. It has been and is currently using whatever assets it has to mould and shape public opinion away from Ukrainian support by means of overt threats as to what might happen if the West doesn’t let it get its own way. How much of left wing protest, greens, anti-nuclear, pro renewable and woke morality politics emanates from the Kremlin we will never know, or how much of the current Republican ‘Russia will win in the end, why not let them, it’s not our problem ‘ attitude. It’s nonsense too to say that Russia was behind Trump, Or behind the Democrats. Patently Russia has a reason to have as many politicians and media figures in both camps in its pocket, or compromised by blackmail. Anything that weakens its enemies social cohesion and causes dissension is to its advantage.

The reality is that apart from a few years of Glasnost, Russia has been at war with the West since WWII. Just not with military weapons. Everything in the Woke/Green/Left wing playbook is straight out of Moscow centres AgitProp manual.

Watch the video.

Ian_e
April 22, 2023 5:47 am

Distraction to hide what the US get up to under the oceans. Blowing up offshore wind turbines would, in any case, be doing us all a big favour!

JEHILL
April 22, 2023 7:23 am

It would not matter if on land or at sea when your “power plant” covers tens to hundreds of square miles or km there are very few ways to protect all it. ( wind or solar )

Thinking of the LOS for AAA or AMA would be tough to configure and that’s just on land. There you only have to contend with the x-y plane and the positive z-axis. When thinking of defending those assets at sea you are adding a completely new x-y plane ( the seafloor ) and having the full spectrum utility of the z-axis. One might be tempted to say, “That’s adding a entire new dimension to the battle field.”

From an aggressor’s stand point it is a target rich environment in which the defender has to sink an enormous about resources in defending. Resources that they aren’t using nor can be used on the front lines and distracts military leadership attentions.

The thought comes to mind that it would be better if we could build power plants that has a much smaller land footprint: Perhaps mathematically stated as “Power Output/Acreage Required”.

Oh now I understand Progressive means to use more land and resources to produce less of the same thing. That’s a goal and feature. Not a bug.

karlomonte
April 22, 2023 7:29 am

“Blame Russia” has been the tack of the American Left for decades to cover over their own failures and crimes.

c1ue
April 22, 2023 8:07 am

The entire notion is idiotic: why on Earth would Russia try to dissuade the West from using intermittent power?
Scandinavian militaries aren’t very credible, either, when it comes to intelligence analysis. Herring farts portrayed as Russian spy subs comes to mind: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/russian-subs-in-the-harbour3f-no2c-herring/3909138
And that’s not even talking about the still unknown – but not Russia! – destroyer of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Joseph Zorzin
April 22, 2023 8:15 am

“People who would cut a gas pipeline, whoever they have, would have no problem sabotaging the cables to an entire fleet of offshore wind farms.”

Especially if they aren’t concerned about WWIII.

conservativeeducator
April 22, 2023 2:54 pm

Gee, if only we had a steady and reliable source of energy that didn’t depend on undersea electric cables.

Hatter Eggburn
April 23, 2023 3:31 am

The US together with Norway destroy the Nordstream pipelines.
So now it’s funny that the Norwegians are nervously looking over their shoulders at what Russia might do in retaliation.
In retaliation for what, pray tell?

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