Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Wind Power Coming

... just not to the US.

Onshore wind farms will provide about 5% of Britain's electricity by 2010, according to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA).

In a new report, it says turbines are being installed faster than predicted.

If this is correct, onshore wind farms will take the government halfway to its target of generating 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4847054.stm

Speaking from the US, I wonder how many more years of being the world's technology leaders, we can survive.

So, does this mean the UK is full of hot air?

Moving air ... not necessarily hot.

The hot air is in Washington D.C.

But there is no motion.

Wind power, on the face of it, seems to be a good idea. It is really another form of solar energy and very clean.

Some years ago I was pleased to see the construction of many windmills near the San Francisco Bay area and some giant ones in southern California. Last time I looked many of those in SoCal were idle. I asked around a little and was told that they were too costly to maintain.

It seems that having no fuel cost would more than balance the maintainance cost. It also seems that the initial cost to build, even a big, windmill would be less than a conventiaonal power plant. Is there a scam going on here? Perhaps an engineering glich that I am not aware of? Hmmm ...

I would be interested to see how it goes in England over the next decade.

What time of year was this? The northern California wind farms only really work about 1/2 of the year (mostly summer).

Also, I don't remember the exact numbers, but as I recall, it took a long time for the windmills outside of Livermore (Northern California) to pay for themselves. Long as in decades. So, when a generator went out, there wasn't so much incentive to fix it.

Yes it sounds good Dan, but there is rather a large hiccup looming.
The Company that is installing these Wind Farms, has been told that they will have to pay some
millions of ? pounds to have them connected to the National Grid. It seems that the Electronic machinery to keep them in sync with the nations generators, has suddenly become very expensive.
So far, the Goverment who endorses the use of windpower has stood aside.
The Wind farm Co announced today that they cannot afford and will not proceed with further installations unless they have financial help.
I believe the National Grid are always spending money updating/repairing grid towers/lines, are very unlikely to help, prefering the status quo.
For the Goverment to step in would require an 'Act of Parliament'
So it looks like individual villages and housing blocks will be the only ones to benefit for some time to come (until they get the maintenance bills)

Question.
Are your Wind farms connected to your local Grid?

***
Personally, I am all in favour of disconnecting
from the National Grid. We could easily go to a 12 volt DC system (As no line distance drop involved, nor am I aware of any modern appliance that would require a higher voltage)
Using individual 6ft diameter blades, on each residence should be adequate. (The biggest load would be heating).
As luck would have it, that would require special individual Local Council planning consent. Something extremely difficult to aquire in a built up area. A planning objection slant, has been a small wind turbine puts a dangerous stress upon existing buildings, plus neighbour sleep noise running thru the brickwork.
Doubt if anything will happen until the oil price rise hits X5 per barrel

Reply to J. Arthur God

I was mostly referring to the windmills in SoCal. I am surprised to hear that initial cost are so high! It seems that all these things are is a fan, a generator and a tower.

After reading Mike K's post, I find myself wondering if there is some sort of mental inertia or even a flim-flam going on.

The Wind farm Co announced today that they cannot afford and will not proceed with further installations unless they have financial help.

a similar sceniario arose in my posting past.

my solutions were to not mount the generators and turbines together atop the strutures but to mount only the turbines.

each turbine could be connected to a main shaft.

which connects to a master shaft.

at the end of the master shaft a variable speed transmission could be implemented before the torque hits the generator.

the second was to have the torque pressurize a fluid then use the fluid to turn the generator at the desired frequency usually 1800 rpm or 3600 rpm depending on if you need 30 hertz or 60 herts.

this also keeps alot of maintenance on the ground.
removes the need for hundreds if not thousands of replacement parts.

each turbine could be clutched in/out when needed.

1 large generator housed in a weatherproof building is better than all the exposed generators.

the repayment time would be greatly reduced.

there are litteraly thousands of old yet verry good condition used generators in the us due to all of the indiustry that left our country for a cheaper work force.

I used to live in Palm Springs and I drive through the Beaumont/Banning pass where all the windmills are. I would say 99% of the time almost all of them are going at a pretty good clip and they do provide power for the Coachella Valley. I will through some links up in a bit.

article re: the power co. unable to take all energy wind produces

article from CA government from 2004

The second one lists how much power wind produces.

Cool. I used to work at "The Lab" in Livermore. The Altamont Pass wind farm was mostly a summer thing (also windsurfing season).

I lived in Livermore for awhile as well. When I got home sick for Palm Springs I could look at those windmills and feel a bit better.

The San Gorgonio Pass is quite the funnel so there is always at least a stiff breeze if not more at the higher altitudes where the blades are.