Wind Turbine Farm

[f35phixer]

Well, with all the Wind Turbine issues in the news, this popped up in my eagle you tube channels. A start to finish video, pretty cool !!!!!!

 

[Koolau]

Really cool. I got to watch some of these being built on the mainland. The technology is amazing (electrical production without fossil fuels). I just wonder if reliable calculations have been made about lifetime greenhouse gas emissions due to these structures. I only recently found out that cement (about 15 to 20% of the "stuff" in concrete is responsible for up to 8% of all CO2 emissions.)

Not trying to be a Negative Nancy - just actually curious about where we are headed with green energy. I love the subject but hope we always keep our eyes wide open (and keep our eyes on the prize so to speak.)

I've driven through several wind farms over the years (including the one I watched being built.) I notice that there are always a significant number of units not functioning. Apparently there is significant maintenance involved. I would NOT want to be the guy or gal who has to climb up there (and out there) to work on these. Think I'd do nuclear maintenance before windmill maintenance - and I used to fly a plane so YMMV.

Thanks for showing this cool video.

 

[meierlde]

Really cool. I got to watch some of these being built on the mainland. The technology is amazing (electrical production without fossil fuels). I just wonder if reliable calculations have been made about lifetime greenhouse gas emissions due to these structures. I only recently found out that cement (about 15 to 20% of the "stuff" in concrete is responsible for up to 8% of all CO2 emissions.)

Not trying to be a Negative Nancy - just actually curious about where we are headed with green energy. I love the subject but hope we always keep our eyes wide open (and keep our eyes on the prize so to speak.)

I've driven through several wind farms over the years (including the one I watched being built.) I notice that there are always a significant number of units not functioning. Apparently there is significant maintenance involved. I would NOT want to be the guy or gal who has to climb up there (and out there) to work on these. Think I'd do nuclear maintenance before windmill maintenance - and I used to fly a plane so YMMV.

Thanks for showing this cool video.

According to this site wind produces 90 times less co2 over the turbine lifetime than coal and 40 times less than natural gas. Nuclear produces 85% of the co2 of a wind turbine (these numbers are on the hign end othes I have seen are lower) https://www.factcheck.org/2018/03/wind-energys-carbon-footprint/

 

[Koolau]

According to this site wind produces 90 times less co2 over the turbine lifetime than coal and 40 times less than natural gas. Nuclear produces 85% of the co2 of a wind turbine (these numbers are on the hign end othes I have seen are lower) https://www.factcheck.org/2018/03/wind-energys-carbon-footprint/

Thanks! Good info to have. I'm very new to green energy but have always found it fascinating.

 

[misanman]

Local farmer installed a large wind turbine a few years ago. The "governor" failed in a high wind situation and the wind turbine disintegrated in spectacular fashion. Now he has five smaller ones but I notice that usually one or two of them aren't turning no matter how strong the wind blows.

 

[MichaelB]

Nice video, thanks! Already sent to my grandkids for their learning pleasure.

 

[Mark1]

Yes, thanks for sharing. Wow, lots and lots of rebar.

 

[Oilcan]

I see many articles about the wind turbines and don't have any comment as to the +'s and -'s of wind energy but I would be really interested in what the cost of building a wind turbine from start to furnish and then compare the cost with fossil fuels (for example, the cost of drilling an oil well), and then compare the energy produced. Anyone know where I would start to get these numbers? Or is there anyone here that may already has done an impartial study of the two? Just interested because I always here of pro-alternative fuel but no numbers to compare.

 

[MRG]

Thanks for posting it was great. I've driven by these things but really didn't appreciate the size. It's great to see the emphasis on the parts below ground, the folks inside the tower really help me see the size.

 

[Ian S]

I just wonder if reliable calculations have been made about lifetime greenhouse gas emissions due to these structures. I only recently found out that cement (about 15 to 20% of the "stuff" in concrete is responsible for up to 8% of all CO2 emissions.)

Not trying to be a Negative Nancy - just actually curious about where we are headed with green energy. I love the subject but hope we always keep our eyes wide open (and keep our eyes on the prize so to speak.)

It's actually pretty amazing how far green energy has come over the last decade. Wind and utility solar PV are in some cases the cheapest options. Of course, there are storage issues so it's useful to look at those costs. Lazard does an annual LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) analysis for various energy technologies and storage and publishes it https://www.lazard.com/perspective/lcoe2020
Basically LCOE is a way of getting a handle on the lifetime energy costs of a particular technology and includes cost to build, operate and decommission an installation.

 

[ERD50]

Yes, thanks for sharing. Wow, lots and lots of rebar.

Yes, and it seems odd to me that there is so much manual labor - like they are weaving a big basket, and spreading all that cement by hand. With so many wind turbines being built, you'd think this would be much more automated, maybe with factory pre-assembled subsections?

It's actually pretty amazing how far green energy has come over the last decade. Wind and utility solar PV are in some cases the cheapest options. Of course, there are storage issues so it's useful to look at those costs. Lazard does an annual LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) analysis for various energy technologies and storage and publishes it https://www.lazard.com/perspective/lcoe2020
Basically LCOE is a way of getting a handle on the lifetime energy costs of a particular technology and includes cost to build, operate and decommission an installation.

Yes, but those LCOE numbers just don't seem apples-apples to me.

OK, so wind and solar are sometimes cheaper by those comparisons, but only when you have fossil fuel and/or nukes as a back up.

As an analogy, I could say car B is cheaper to buy and operate over its lifetime than car A - oh, but car B can't be counted on to run when you need it (nights or low wind times), so you still need to buy and maintain car A. So is car B really cheaper?

As I've said before, renewable energy is great as far as it goes, but it only goes so far.

While I trust their numbers have been vetted, it's just hard to grasp after seeing how much concrete goes into (under) one of those things. I guess I'd have to see what goes into a 1 MW capacity NG turbine and compare that to about 5 of these 1 MW capacity wind turbines. IIRC, the capacity factor for wind is ~ 20% - on average it would take 5 of these 1 MW wind turbines to equal the output of a single 1 MW NG turbine on average over the year.

-ERD50