Windfarms

[TimJMS]

I was at a function a fortnight ago held inside a new building with two 12 metre helical turbines spinning like mad no more than 20 feet from the door. Being a fking smoker meant I had plenty of viewing time right underneath them that evening, (couple of Saturdays ago - b@stard windy night) and guess what? Virtually no noise. Very impressive and suited the design of the building.

So while I can take or leave wind farms, these turbines countered many of the criticisms I have heard levelled against such things.

[esselte]

TimJMS said:

I was at a function a fortnight ago held inside a new building with two 12 metre helical turbines spinning like mad no more than 20 feet from the door. Being a fking smoker meant I had plenty of viewing time right underneath them that evening, (couple of Saturdays ago - b@stard windy night) and guess what? Virtually no noise. Very impressive and suited the design of the building.

So while I can take or leave wind farms, these turbines countered many of the criticisms I have heard levelled against such things.

How much leccy did they produce?

[TimJMS]

15KW each I believe.

[mybrainhurts]

Lefty Guns said:

Aye but they're too feckin expensive. It takes so long to recoup CAPEX that they may never break even.

But we have to pay through the nose while they try...

[turbobloke]

TimJMS said:

15KW each I believe.

When it's calm?

[mybrainhurts]

mattviatura said:

Is it true that they don't work properly if it's too er... windy?

Yes, they're locked still when the wind blows too much.

[Beyond Rational]

cazzer said:

Beyond Rational said:

I have a question for the boffins; can you send the power from the power stations to make the windfarms into huge fans, thus solving all global warming issues in a instant?

But potentially altering the rotation of the planet and thus time itself.

Just make sure you write down the lottery numbers before we turn them on, or prehaps we've already turned them on once before and have come back to now again?

Edited by Beyond Rational on Wednesday 25th March 22:20

[esselte]

mybrainhurts said:

mattviatura said:

Is it true that they don't work properly if it's too er... windy?

Yes, they're locked still when the wind blows too much.

And obviously they don't produce when it's calm..are there any figures available to show just how many days a windmill in the UK would be productive?

[pgtips]

esselte said:

mybrainhurts said:

mattviatura said:

Is it true that they don't work properly if it's too er... windy?

Yes, they're locked still when the wind blows too much.

And obviously they don't produce when it's calm..are there any figures available to show just how many days a windmill in the UK would be productive?

Average generation is approx. 28 - 30% of the year - in energy terms. They can vary from around 95% max output to 0% on an hour to hour basis. In terms of amount we can rely (for a security of supply standard), this goes down to about 20%. in other words a 100 MW wind farm has same contribution to our security of supply as a 20 MW thermal plant.
There is a good paper on it - one for the staticians possibly: http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/publications/downloads/sin...

[Streetrod]

Hey guys I work in the power generation business and currently have 6500 guys wandering around the planet working on various power generation projects. Wind farms are only part of a solution, yes they are expensive to set up but once the infrastructure is in place the costs will come down. Also having seen and latest turbines that we will be rolling out soon the efficiency is going to jump by a substantial margin.
The EU has stipulated that we have to produce a certain amount of power from renewable sources and wind farms are a part of that.
Nuclear is the future but we are well behind the eight ball on this and as people have said the French will have to step in to save us. But even if we started building today the lead times are still 15-20 years away before we can start producing electricity.
Personally I like the windmills, I think they look great, also had a great view of the offshore wind farm in the Netherlands as I flew into Amsterdam last week.

[escargot]

Streetrod said:

Hey guys I work in the power generation business and currently have 6500 guys wandering around the planet working on various power generation projects. Wind farms are only part of a solution, yes they are expensive to set up but once the infrastructure is in place the costs will come down. Also having seen and latest turbines that we will be rolling out soon the efficiency is going to jump by a substantial margin.
The EU has stipulated that we have to produce a certain amount of power from renewable sources and wind farms are a part of that.
Nuclear is the future but we are well behind the eight ball on this and as people have said the French will have to step in to save us. But even if we started building today the lead times are still 15-20 years away before we can start producing electricity.
Personally I like the windmills, I think they look great, also had a great view of the offshore wind farm in the Netherlands as I flew into Amsterdam last week.

You work for Vestas?

[Streetrod]

escargot said:

Streetrod said:

Hey guys I work in the power generation business and currently have 6500 guys wandering around the planet working on various power generation projects. Wind farms are only part of a solution, yes they are expensive to set up but once the infrastructure is in place the costs will come down. Also having seen and latest turbines that we will be rolling out soon the efficiency is going to jump by a substantial margin.
The EU has stipulated that we have to produce a certain amount of power from renewable sources and wind farms are a part of that.
Nuclear is the future but we are well behind the eight ball on this and as people have said the French will have to step in to save us. But even if we started building today the lead times are still 15-20 years away before we can start producing electricity.
Personally I like the windmills, I think they look great, also had a great view of the offshore wind farm in the Netherlands as I flew into Amsterdam last week.

You work for Vestas?

Nope, Granite Services, we are a GE company

[escargot]

Ahhh.

I'm involved in the renewable energy industry too. How you finding the market at the moment?

[mybrainhurts]

escargot said:

Ahhh.

I'm involved in the renewable energy industry too. How you finding the market at the moment?

I throw a shoe at each of you...

Good news here....

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/ind...

[Invisible man]

Milliband might be hacked off but Broon will be pleased, less windmill farms = less subsidy payouts.

I note the comments are pretty good too

[RobCrezz]

I dont see whats wrong with Nuclear power.

[esselte]

RobCrezz said:

I dont see whats wrong with Nuclear power.

The problem is they should have started planning them 10 years ago...

[Streetrod]

escargot said:

Ahhh.

I'm involved in the renewable energy industry too. How you finding the market at the moment?

I am busy, I cover all the different kinds of energy production, renewable and not. I just got back from the Netherlands on Monday where I was putting together teams to support Jenbacher Gas engines across Europe. These things will run off anything from LPG to cow poo and are used for stand alone electricity production.

On that note if we have any good Automotive engineers with a solid Petrol or Diesel background on this site who speak either Dutch or Spanish then please email me as I am looking to recruit a number at the moment.

Going back to your original question, various wind projects have been put back in the USA but Europe seems to be OK

[pgtips]

RobCrezz said:

I dont see whats wrong with Nuclear power.

Some nuclear power is great. Too much nuclear (for a market with limited opportunities to export in the same way France does) can cause problems: the system becomes too inflexible to meet fluctuataions in demand. This is why people talk of electrification of the transport sector: i.e we all drive around in electric cars to avoid us having to turn down nuclear power stations..... Not saying its a good thing but that's the thinking behind it.

[Lordbenny]

Streetrod said:

Nuclear is the future

I though nuclear fusion or fision or whatever it is was going to solve the worlds energy problems within the next 50 years or that's what I was lead to believe after watching that Horizon programme the other day. Something to do with atoms and bringing 2 negative particles together using lazers and stuff! I didn't do O level physics!