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To: NYFreeper; Parmy
The mere fact that these things are 200-300 ft above the ground drives the cost up significantly.

Unless a specialized crane is required to change out a major component, the 80m elevation of most turbines (hub height) plays little part in their operating cost - most are operated remotely by computer.

42 posted on 11/17/2012 2:08:51 PM PST by DTogo (High time to bring back the Sons of Liberty !!)
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To: DTogo
Unless a specialized crane is required to change out a major component, the 80m elevation of most turbines (hub height) plays little part in their operating cost - most are operated remotely by computer.

LOL! You ever been up an antenna tower, way up where the wind is threatening to blow your a$$ off into the wild blue yonder? I have. It's difficult, and only certain people will do it, and they want to be paid HANDSOMELY.

You can't replace a wind turbine transmission "remotely by computer". No maintenance of these turbines is done without somebody climbing up there.

In Colorado last year, they had a storm, and it got so cold that the hydraulic fluid got so sluggish that stuff broke in the transmission. You think somebody's going to climb up there in the winter and fix it? Heck, no! How will they get there? Road is snowed over, and there's no place to land a helicopter. So now, you lose capacity until spring.

These things are a maintenance NIGHTMARE.

49 posted on 11/17/2012 3:02:41 PM PST by backwoods-engineer ("Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the gov officials committing it." -- K. Hoffmann)
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To: DTogo
Unless a specialized crane is required to change out a major component, the 80m elevation of most turbines (hub height) plays little part in their operating cost - most are operated remotely by computer.

The height of these things IS a very significant driver in the MAINTENANCE of these things. You need specially trained personnel, the time it takes to climb and get parts and tools up to these things and the remoteness of the site. Also, there is no economy of scale with wind farms. You need hundreds of these units to just to equal the output of a coal or nuke plant, which usually have just a couple of units.

56 posted on 11/17/2012 5:18:44 PM PST by NYFreeper
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