clintCamp t1_itf8lxi wrote on October 23, 2022 at 5:03 AM

Reply to comment by leaky_wand in China is building a 40 gigawatt offshore wind farm, the biggest power plant in existence by mutherhrg

If people haven't noticed, energy independence is a very strategic win. Look at Europe right now with Putin cutting off fossil fuel exports. They may step in and offer energy to other countries at a steep cost? Then there is the continued existence factor as we are seeing record lows and high temps, droughts and massive floodings, famines and other climate events, ocean warmings, glacier meetings, sea life population collapse like the 12 billion snow crab population down to 2 billion in the last 2 years, etc. Lots of long term benefits to helping stave off further ecological disaster, and if anything pull more energy from the increased winds.

RuachDelSekai t1_itgg4tf wrote on October 23, 2022 at 1:48 PM

It's not just Europe. It's Haiti, the USA too. Energy independence is also related to gas & crude oil. Even the USA, which consumes more gasoline than it can refine itself with current capacity is one major natural disasters (or sabotage) away from a transportation catastrophe.

It's wild to me how short-sighted people are.

urmomaisjabbathehutt t1_itg9251 wrote on October 23, 2022 at 12:45 PM

Also resiliency, stoping those generating power with a single drone hit as Russia does with power plants in ukrania is impossible

also if the poles are fixed to the ocean floor it may act as artificial riffs helping the local marine ecosystems