Wind Farms, Yes or No?

Well, given that the current system of producing wind, relying entirely on random acts of nature, either tends to produce too much wind, or to little wind, ( and of course most of the time wind from entirely the wrong direction.... ) I am all for trying to farm the stuff and have the right amount available when you want it and from the right direction.

So. Good Idea!
 
I am reserving judgement until someone can tell me how long it takes for a wind turbine to repay the energy cost of building (and dismantling).
 
There must be about a trillion tons of water moving up and down by twenty feet twice a day in the bristol channel. That alone would provide energy that exceed all the wind farm turbines by a gazzillion percent, twice a day, every day without fail. And it would spoil the view to bury undersea turbine tubes.

D
 
they seem a lot of effort/production/materials for not much eleci maybe? dont know


not to hijack but thousands of mill ponds could be resurrected with big water wheels attached to big generators giving 24 hour power. The resurrected mill ponds would provide local ammenities and wildlife etc better for everybody 0.02pence
 
fergie_mac66 said:
they seem a lot of effort/production/materials for not much eleci maybe? dont know


not to hijack but thousands of mill ponds could be resurrected with big water wheels attached to big generators giving 24 hour power. The resurrected mill ponds would provide local ammenities and wildlife etc better for everybody 0.02pence
Click to expand...
Nice idea, but unfortunately the impoundments necessary to create millponds totally upset the natural function of rivers and their ecology.
 
BBC South East news yesterday featured only one wind farm off N Kent Coast andshowed tha every single generator had had their gearbox replaced at least once at great cost and still many are out service.
 
reginaldon said:
BBC South East news yesterday featured only one wind farm off N Kent Coast andshowed tha every single generator had had their gearbox replaced at least once at great cost and still many are out service.
Click to expand...

I bet those were the Vestas V80's........They took a good onshore unit... made a few changes.... and stuck them off shore.... and then they started blowing up the gearboxs....

Amazingly even though they quickly realised they had a problem... and new when it would occur... they didnt put a preventative program in place or even put spares in stock on site(At the facility I am familiar with...), So the average downtime was something like 6 weeks per turbine... and they had to get the barge in for every repair at the cost of £22k per DAY.....

I understand that the operator of that site has now kicked Vestas up the bottom... and have gotten to grips with the reliability...

But the costs and reliability of offshore is shocking compared to onshore...
 
reginaldon said:
BBC South East news yesterday featured only one wind farm off N Kent Coast andshowed tha every single generator had had their gearbox replaced at least once at great cost and still many are out service.
Click to expand...
Yup, according to the BBC all 30 have had their gearboxes replaced twice within the last 4 years (last 10 currently being done now) at considerable expense, both in cost of repairs and in lost power generation.
 
photodog said:
I bet those were the Vestas V80's........They took a good onshore unit... made a few changes.... and stuck them off shore.... and then they started blowing up the gearboxs....

Amazingly even though they quickly realised they had a problem... and new when it would occur... they didnt put a preventative program in place or even put spares in stock on site(At the facility I am familiar with...), So the average downtime was something like 6 weeks per turbine... and they had to get the barge in for every repair at the cost of £22k per DAY.....

I understand that the operator of that site has now kicked Vestas up the bottom... and have gotten to grips with the reliability...

But the costs and reliability of offshore is shocking compared to onshore...
Click to expand...


I believe the once off GT Yarmouth are or were always breaking down.

I suppose one good think is there are some jobs but not nearly enough
 
I think I am not for wind farms I attended a lecture given by the chap below and on his calculations the UK currently needed three wind farms the size of wales to generate enough energy for it to be really sustainable. Basically we need to use loads less energy in the first place.

http://www.withouthotair.com/

So carry on sailing....
 
Sometime in the next 100 years or so there will be a host of wind turbine restoration societies, dedicated to recreating the magical landscape of wind farms threatened with extinction now that technological advances in cold fusion have rendered them even more uneconomic than ever.
 
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