Posted on 01/01/2021 7:03:15 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT
The turning diameter of its rotor is longer than two American football fields end to end. Later models will be taller than any building on the mainland of Western Europe.
The G.E. machines will have a generating capacity that would have been almost unimaginable a decade ago. A single one will be able to turn out 13 megawatts of power, enough to light up a town of roughly 12,000 homes.
The race to build bigger turbines has moved faster than many industry figures foresaw. G.E.’s Haliade-X generates almost 30 times more electricity than the first offshore machines installed off Denmark in 1991.
In coming years, customers are likely to demand even bigger machines, industry executives say. On the other hand, they predict that, just as commercial airliners peaked with the Airbus A380, turbines will reach a point where greater size no longer makes economic sense.
(Excerpt) Read more at dnyuz.com ...
They will put them in Washington and outside CNN to ensure that never happens.
Just where will they locate these huge monstrosities? The windmills are bad for birds but many have their own feral cat communities beneath them. Food just keeps falling out of the sky.
what a friggin boondoggle.
How many friends and family of the government class will retire from the money they received from this?
I may be wrong, but at the seashore it always seems to be blowing. As far as too much, they have a limiting speed system which “feathers” the prop.
Offshore is probably the one place where these things work pretty well, unfortunately they are ugly.
If these blades are indestructible why do they need to even be replaced? :)
Larger turbines reduce the cost of production.
Most wind turbines are double-fed induction generators (DFIG) that feed the grid directly and don’t require batteries. They are able to withstand normal anticipated storms and when the wind doesn’t blow the blades don’t turn.
No wind farm has ever promised 24/7 output. In fact there is a nameplate capacity and a utilization rate that provides utilites with an accurate expectation when they sign contracts to purchase power from a wind operator, just like every other generation source.
This is all engineering, no need to fret over it, just plug in and use electricity knowing it comes from a diverse mix of generation sources from coal to solar to nuclear, every single one of which is subsidized to various degrees by the government and always has been.
I don’t think any aero structure is indestructible.
It’s always a tradeoff of weight vs life vs cost.
Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills
later
Personally I’m a fan of landfills.
Eventually here in Indiana we’re gonna have some awesome skiing areas built on garbage!
Not to mention they are eyesores, hideous beyond belief. They destroy the beauty of natural landscapes. Someone has written that the greenies love the climate but hate the environment. The damage these things are doing is incalculable. Killing vital bird populations, bats, and other wildlife necessary in the ecosystem. Raptors (hawks, accipiters) are dying in the hundreds of thousands. This is madness.
I tried to argue this with one of these nuts who was rapidly opposed to fracking and fossil fuels. Her response—”the birds will just have to learn to fly someplace else.” And this is someone concerned about the environment? Total idiots.
Sorry, the word I wanted is “rabidly.” The woman was stark, raving, rabid.
Actually you leave the plants running even when the wind blows. There is not enough time to start from shut down to generation if a brown out occurs.
Hell let’s hope all of them?
Yes, that’s right.
But, beyond that environmental concern, I am just wondering, given the massive size and massive wind-motion-derived power of these devices, if there are other environmental consequences that have either not been considered, or are just not being reported.
Will the collective activity of huge farms of such machines have zero impact locally on anything??? I find that hard to believe.
Bird choppers.
The discussion never happening is about Gen IV nuclear reactors or Thorium molten salt reactors.
If one is actually concerned about the environment and “climate change”.
We deplete human resources and money by skewing the generation industry towards feel good hippie BS.
Similar to Math, Physics, and CompSci people working on Wall Street to maximize trade speed and algorithms.
We have flown thru the middle of the country and have seen hundreds and hundreds of beautiful acres of land devoured by these hideous eyesores. I hope we won’t need the land to grow crops anytime soon.
Ty,
I have worked on solar, water, and some wind, now days I dabble with batteries and such, off-grid stuff..
You are correct, it takes multi principle units to combine when using water wind and solar as the cornerstone
Or just use natural gas, or nuclear
The latter bring far more bang for the buck, no pun intended.
Gas would be the easiest second and most portable due to less water requirements.
They probably never mention that these gargantuan windmills need to be connected to the grid to power generators that constantly slowly spin the turbine in light wind so gravity doesn’t warp the shaft.
I believe some also use electric deicing heaters. Other use deicing fluid applied with fossil fuel powered helicopters.
What is the wind speed for optimal generation? I know of one that requires constant 25 mph wind.
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