Throw The Switch

Concepts are always prettier in the abstract. Who can object to “green energy,” for instance, beyond those employed by fossil fuel industries? Using wind and sunlight to create all of the electricity that drives our modern world would be a miraculous achievement with universal support.

Alas, those pesky details. It’s only been less than 60 years since the first photovoltaic cell was created by Bell Laboratories, and the panels we use today are big, clumsy and homely; they take up valuable space, except when we can tuck them away on rooftops or, as Suffolk County has done, using them to shade parking spaces. To maximize efficiency, the wind turbines that create electricity are sleek but massively tall. Every spark of electricity generated needs to be stored, or sent over distances.

These are the tools of green energy, and they are not so cuddly as the idea itself. Embracing the mission means accepting the aesthetics, or lack thereof, that enable it to be completed. You can’t have green energy without wind turbines and solar panels — and they’ve yet to figure out how to make them invisible.

The Biden administration announced last week that the waters south of Long Island — particularly a stretch known as Fairways North, which is 15 to 25 miles south of the area between Hampton Bays and Montauk — will be a priority area for the development of offshore wind. That means that the proposed South Fork Wind Farm off Montauk, and the dozen or so other similar offshore projects in the region, are just the start: By 2025, there could be double the number of turbines proposed — hundreds, maybe thousands.

The knee-jerk reaction: It’s an industrialization of the ocean, and a potential threat both to the local fishing industry and the ocean vistas that make this a destination for visitors and moneyed part-time residents. That is not unreasonable — there are real concerns on all those fronts that must be prioritized during the review process, and mitigation is necessary in all cases.

Remember, though, the ultimate goal: Americans making the steady transition away from fossil fuels, a finite and filthy 20th century resource, into using renewable and natural sources of energy to power our lives, our homes, our cars. Electricity is key, and until the past half century the only way to get it was to burn coal, oil or natural gas. These wind turbines, visible as they are, represent a new, cleaner world.

The fishing industry will be forced to adapt and must be compensated, when appropriate, for losses. Dotting the horizon with wind turbines visible from the South Fork’s beautiful beaches is not a smart strategy for maintaining that all-important “quality of life” that separates this region. But neither is an insurmountable challenge, and there is precedent to examine: Denmark built the first offshore commercial wind farm in 1991, and there are more than 57,000 wind turbines in place on American soil and in the oceans offshore. We are not flying blind.

The demand for electricity will not wane, and it’s clear that the modern world must throw the switch and find the cleanest way to meet that need. The Biden administration’s bold proposal is what that looks like, and the impact is inevitable. The big question we face as a nation is how to make consequential steps toward green energy. The answer, my friend, is … well, you know.