Surprise Alert at Zephyr V
Nguyen groaned as an alert tore through her headset.
“Alert! Critical malfunction — Turbine G. Possible electrical failure”, the AI spoke in a cool tone despite the grave informatin.
She knew that was one of the worst alerts. The only remedy was an on-site inspection. She looked out the window as the sky pulsed a mournful twilight blue amidst the waves, reflecting her own mood.
She swore and stomped her seaweed-stained boots against the metal floor of the maintenance room. This old wind farm was always giving them trouble, but usually it was something she could deal with on land.
Today was the worst of all the days, as it was her birthday. While she never got along with her parents, she had hoped they’d at least acknowledge the date. But nothing, not even her coworkers seemed to notice. And now she was the only one left for the night.
Ordinarily she did not mind the work. Zephyr had become her reluctant home. Its towering turbines in the distance were more than mere power generators, but constant reminders of how much power the ocean could contain and how destructive it could be.
But as the sun set over the horizon she found herself zooming through the chilly sea as the transport boat emitted a familiar drone. The sea spray did nothing to soothe her frayed nerves.
Then she came towards Sector G, whose monstrous silhouette above her eclipsed the dull engine drone of her boat.
Scaling the turbine had become second nature to her. Muscle memory took over, guiding her hands through a maze of rusty and loose rails.
As her head peaked over the top, she gasped. She couldn’t see the usual blinking control panels and the metallic whir of machinery had been replaced by… laughter?
She lifted herself onto the platform to see faces, the laughing faces of her workmates. Streamers hung in their tangled hair and lanterns hanging overhead let off a soft orange glow.
“Happy birthday, Wind Queen!” roared big Finn, pointing at a large sheet cake.
Nguyen stumbled forward and blinked hard. “You lot…” she murmured.
Her usual banter was stuck in her throat as plates of steaming seafood assailed her nostrils and someone handed her a glass of wine.
Confusion was slowly replaced by a slow bloom of warmth. She hadn’t been abandoned. Here, on this metal island, they had all come together to celebrate her. Familiar scents of lemongrass and roasted peanuts took her back to her childhood years having fun at the shore.
“What about the alert?” she asked the group naively.
“Some alerts are actually blessings in disguise,” Finn teased.
“I’m sure that’s what you put in your on-call reports every week,” she retorted back.
As the turbine continued pulsing slowly beneath her feet, she watched as the sunset’s glow was replaced by bio-luminescent plankton. She raised her grimy glass to this ramshackle family of ocean engineers. Tonight, Zephyr felt less like an exile and strangely like home.
The start of this year was marked by the opening of Vineyard Wind, a huge off-shore wind project. Technologically there are a number of barriers to its success like building large transmission lines and regulatory barriers. Still, it will certainly be a critical percentage of energy going forward.