Posted on 03/07/2017 8:01:30 AM PST by MichCapCon
On average, every megawatt of wind generation has to be backed up by at least a half megawatt of controllable generation, be it gas, coal, or other. Why? Because wind is variable and doesn’t follow customer demand for electricity. So, even if wind in some cases is competitively priced (and usually, it is NOT), it can’t compete when the cost of replacement power is factored in.
This doesn’t even factor in the huge amount of land, and the enormous investment in transmission lines needed to get the power from the remotely-located wind farm to the load centers (cities basically).
Why does the hub appear to continue to spin?
The generator’s inertia should be much less than the ‘force’ of generation.
Driving blades are gone.
But it still spins?
Is it just oscillating?
Kill more birds!
Imagine the noise from these things.
24/7 WHUMP WHUMP THWACK (hits bird)
That’s Nucking Futz.
Why in the hell do you need windmills as tall as a skyscraper?
Know keedean...
Takes a while to slow down after spinning uncontrollably like that. (They have brakes on the rotor to prevent this exact thing from happening - Who knew that the wind can blow TOO FAST for these expensive pieces of crap???)
From now on, migrating birds better steer clear of Michigan.
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And Texas also as they have 18,531 MW of turbine generators.
Not sure many are as tall as they are talking about in MI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Texas
In other news, Don Quixote grows to 50 feet tall.
Couldn't learn from the CA experience which has whole wind farms in mountain passes abandoned and rusting in place.
The armature of the generator has a great deal of mass and is on bearings and was spinning pretty fast . It really doesn’t surprise me to see it continue to spin.
Short answer: Economy of scales. (One big turbine generates a lot more energy than lots of little turbines made from the same amount of material.)
Further, the wind speed increases as you rise above the ground.
Regards,
Okay.
...and just how much of this is subsidized by taxpayers either directly, through increased electricity rates or through tax incentives? What a pathetic joke on the public.
They aren’t killing enough eagles, so they are building taller to get the high fliers too
Yeah, we have those here at the Altamount Pass and in Palm Springs and those are 400’ish feet tall.
500 feet seems crazy but, I windmills are crazy, as does their perceived benefit...
Then again, Google seems to think they are worth it...
Guess they don’t like wildlife up there.
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