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Forum Index: DISCUSSION: Dock Talk:
Wind Farms 		Team McLube

 
 


The Publisher
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Sep 17, 2010, 2:48 PM

Post #1 of 6 (3473 views)
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From John Oliver:
I see stories of wind farms being planted in many areas used by sailors in the North sea, the Celtic sea, and with many more planned for the U.S. and other coasts. I'm sure someone has done the studies, but I've never seen any of the results.

- Does the turbine extract energy from the wind, is the wind shadow just a mush with low pressure, or is it all twisted or roiled up, how far does the shadow extend?
- How capable are these structures of withstanding extreme wind speeds?
- Is that why there are none existing or planned for the Caribbean?

These things are being planted all over and I wonder if any of Scuttlebutt’s readers have any knowledge they could pass on.


cbedford
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Sep 24, 2010, 5:25 AM

Post #2 of 6 (3252 views)
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- Does the turbine extract energy from the wind, is the wind shadow just a mush with low pressure, or is it all twisted or roiled up, how far does the shadow extend?

Yes, there is a wind shadow. It can extend miles downwind from a single large wind turbine and modeling shows the shadows extending hundreds of miles downwind in the case of large wind farms. There is no such thing as free energy. Taken collectively, all the world's wind farms will have an impact on the global climate in much the same way that burning fossil fuels does. Other so-called Green Energy "solutions" - such as wave and tidal power - also have environmental impacts. The only true green "solution" is to reduce energy consumption.

- How capable are these structures of withstanding extreme wind speeds?

Wind turbines are designed to withstand extreme wind speeds. Since they are often installed in locations known to have strong winds, this is a standard requirement. In fact, most turbines shut down during strong winds in order to protect the equipment from damage. However, like any engineered structure, there are limits. There are most definately cases of turbines failing during storms which exceed design limits or due to control system problems. Such failures are becoming less common as design, manufacturing, installation and maintenance techniques improve. Unfortunately, with the number of installations increasing all the time, the news of failures will never go away in much the same way that airplanes still crash from time to time.

- Is that why there are none existing or planned for the Caribbean?

There are wind farms in the Caribbean, however few large wind energy plants. The main reason has to do with transmission to the users. It is cheaper and more environmentally sound to build wind farms close to where the energy is used. So a balance must be struck between building wind farms where there is wind AND where there is infrastructure to get the power produced to where it is needed. As is often the case, it comes down to economics.



Joe Colpitt
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Sep 24, 2010, 6:06 AM

Post #3 of 6 (3241 views)
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There are wind farms on the island of Curacao. I don't know how well they work.


BeauVrolyk
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Sep 28, 2010, 11:08 AM

Post #4 of 6 (3034 views)
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Wind Turbines, like many "green" energy systems, are much more costly than standard coal and oil burning power systems. As a result, you typically only find them in countries that can subsidize them or places where rich Countries have subsidized their installation.

Most of the Caribbean has plenty of wind, but inadequate finances to subsidize Wind or Solar energy.

BV


sullythescarer
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Oct 11, 2010, 12:17 AM

Post #5 of 6 (2551 views)
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In Reply To
Wind Turbines, like many "green" energy systems, are much more costly than standard coal and oil burning power systems. As a result, you typically only find them in countries that can subsidize them or places where rich Countries have subsidized their installation.

Most of the Caribbean has plenty of wind, but inadequate finances to subsidize Wind or Solar energy.

BV

I think that is perhaps a rather "broad" way of approaching renewables and their costs... There are many countries which are not rich who are buying into renewables as a way of reducing costs over the broader spectrum, rather than just the very shallow "cost/Kw/Hr" number which is generally regarded.

The manufacture of wind turbines has quite a high labor requirement, and as such it is actually lower GDP countries who are embracing it. The industry is seeing a huge growth in latin american and Eastern Europe markets where labour is available, generally quite well skilled and willing to work. When it comes to making items like rotorblades, it would typically be very feasilble for a turbine systems provided to set up a factory and train a workforce to manufacture their own rotorblades, with the excess being sold and transported to other sites. When you take this entire business model into account, windmills become significantly easier to justify even on the basic (and generally incorrect) assumption of cost/kw/hr.

As for the Caribbean, Wind energy installations would actually make most sense in a location such as this, where there is generally a high level of stable wind, and the yield would be high. In addition to this, the actual installation costs of a wind turbine for a site such as that would be comparible to those for setting up a coal or oil burning system, but wind energy would not require the constant input of raw materials or 'things to burn'. In addition to this, there is also the massive reduction in Carbon emmissions which are created by burnt fuels.

I completely agree with previous statements on this thread though - that the only real way to go is to reduce energy dependency by reducing consumption.


The Publisher
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Oct 11, 2010, 12:42 PM

Post #6 of 6 (2448 views)
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From colpitts@

Chris Bedford's statement, the only true green solution is to reduce consumption is bang on, but comparing the impact of wind farms to that of fossil fuels is a stretch. It's careless to suggest they will have an impact similar to the global warming and devastating sea rise issues that fossil fuels threaten. Wind farms occupy only the lower 3% of the earth's atmosphere, and much less than 1/1000 of 1% of the earth's surface. On a global scale, their impact would not be measureable. And while modeling may show the wind shadow effect will extend hundreds of miles downwind, it would not be detectable by any instrument sailors use.


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