Posted on 02/01/2010 7:46:20 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Minnesota invested itself in alternative energy sources years ago, and so the revelation that the state spent $3.3 million on eleven wind turbines hardly qualifies as news. However, the fact that they don’t work in cold weather does. KSTP reports that none of the wind turbines work, prompting the Twin Cities ABC affiliate to dub them “no-spin zones.”
Special hydraulic fluid designed for colder temperatures was used in the turbines, but it’s not working, so neither are the turbines.
There is a plan to heat the fluid, but officials must find a contractor to do the work.
How will the heaters work? They’ll have to use either electricity or natural gas at each turbine to keep the mechanism lubricated. That will drastically reduce the net energy gain from each turbine, depending on how much heating the turbine fluid needs to stop congealing in the winter. Since cold weather here lasts anywhere from 4-6 months, that makes it mighty inefficient as an energy resource.
In this case, though, the state may not be entirely at fault. The manufacturer certified these turbines to work during the harsh winters of Minnesota, and the state took them at their word. KSTP reports that the state may sue the manufacturer for either failure to perform or perhaps misrepresentation, so we could get at least some of our money back. However, the state also could have mitigated the issue by purchasing just one or two and monitoring their performance through a winter before buying the rest.
Wind power makes a lot of sense as a secondary or tertiary power source, a way to harness extra power without necessarily relying on it as a consistent source. I have no problem with its deployment under that kind of strategy, but as this shows, it’s simply not reliable enough as a primary energy resource replacing coal- or natural gas-generated electricity.
We could try, but they usually be a sittin’ on dey fat assets, not much willing to hit the treadmill and give us all some power.
LOL. It looks like cold weather has put a damper on the leftys agenda.
Whips.
Sorry, they are all busy chanting in their new rock circles at the Air Force Academy.
And where do we get the energy to head the fluid. Dumb as@es!!!!!!!
Well you could use the coal plant to power a giant fan that would blow through heaters and power the windmills.
By definition, every KwH of wind or solar-generated power must be backed up by an available KwH of conventionally generated power.
Otherwise, you run the risk of windless or sunless days leaving you powerless.
For those who hope to have a utopian world where only wind and solar energy are employed 100%, be advised you'll require 100% back-up from coal, natural gas or nuclear power plants.
Enviros are so damn foolish...
Minnesota was sold a bill of goods. These are crap. Toys. Real utility scale turbines have no problem operating at low temperatures. Bash wind if you want to, but using this story to do it puts you in the crap science league.
wind turbine crippled in high winds. 1980's vintage design.
That’s pretty damn funny
Minnesota broke wind.
And then we could put this wheel with a bunch of vanes on it in the updraft, and then we could hook it to a generator, and then...
Wind power costs more and the average will raise the cost of all power.
And you either need to keep that conventional power spun up or you need some r-e-a-l-l-y big capacitators.
Let me get this straight, to save the planet from global warming they built wind mills to generate electricity, but they don’t work because it’s too (wait for it)
cold?????????
An equally ludicrous situation happened to the LA Fire Department. When a fire burned the power lines to their station, the fire department started their backup diesel generators so they could continue to operate. The CA Air Resources Board forced them to shutdown the generators. They were worried about the minuscule pollution of diesel generators as a massive brush fire was raging just a few miles away. The fire department needed that power to support putting out the fire. Idiot leftists.
Uh... capacitors. Capacitators are the guys who install capacitors.
“And then we could put this wheel with a bunch of vanes on it in the updraft, and then we could hook it to a generator, and then...”
Yeppers That’s the ticket! LOL
Sort of similar to the situation that took out much of the public safety radio system in New Orleans. They’d planned to use propane powered generators to run the repeater sites in the event of a power failure, but the neighbors got all excited about the “fire hazard”. So, they went with natural gas which, of course, was impacted by the flooding and power failure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.