Full Sail Ahead for Wind Energy

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2007/20070117.html

October 10, 2007 – Vol.12 No. 29

FULL SAIL AHEAD FOR WIND ENERGY.

Find a site. Buy’em. Plant’em. Plug’em in. Aside from the growing worldwide demand for clean power, it’s relatively easy to build wind energy capacity. Why would anyone consider building a nuclear power plant of say 1000 megawatts - which can take years to build - when power developers can buy off-the-shelf products (those megawatt-class wind turbines) and plant them in the soil for the same amount of power as the nuke in a very short period of time?

(Given recent announcements of record, ten-years-ahead-predictions, greenhouse gas emissions along with record Arctic ice melt, we might not have enough time to build nukes or develop mythical clean coal power plants.)

The announcement of plans from German renewable provider Conergy for a 1000 megawatt wind farm in the Australian Outback serves as a reminder as to how big and how smart and how much potential the wind energy industry still has. The wind is not only still in the sails of the wind energy industry, the wind is getting stronger as well.

True, a wind farm may not provide the 24/7 power that a nuke can. And true, transmission lines, particularly to remote areas, have to be installed bring wind power to people. But compared with the development and construction headaches along with lifelong and end of life decommissioning responsibilities that go along with nukes, why wouldn’t one turn to wind? Wind is just plain easier.

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[NNadir]

1. Oh, maybe because wind plants last about 5 years before they need to be rebuiilt.

Why not ask the Germans?

They know all about it:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,500902,00.html

Be sure to call in a sockpuppet to say this report from Germany is full of shit.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. "Be sure to call in a sockpuppet" ...

Hmm... I believe that's known as "poisoning the well." Okay, let's see what NREL has to say:

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35172.pdf

...

The stochastic nature of the wind resource causes fluctuating loads on the wind turbine blades. These cyclic loads contribute to fatigue damage. The average lifetime of a wind turbine is expected to exceed 20 years, but fatigue damage accumulation can significantly reduce this lifetime. In the early 1980s, very large multi-megawatt machines designed for a 20 year operational lifespan often failed within months of being deployed as a result of not accounting for turbulence induced loads in the design (Robinson 2003). The ability to predict wind loads that contribute to fatigue, then, is critical in the design of wind turbines.

...

They go on (for some 100 pages) to talk about how to mitigate these problems.

Just as with nuclear reactor technology, wind turbine technology advances and just as with nuclear reactors, some designs are better than others. The big difference is that a poorly built wind turbine may throw metal hundreds of meters, whereas a poorly built nuclear reactor may send radiation hundreds of miles.

[Jersey Ginny]

2. It's not wind power or nuclear power. It is a mix of all energy sources

that don't contribute to global warming.

[Berry Cool]

4. The only issue the original article doesn't address is the difficulty involved in getting turbines.

Right now, not enough are being made to meet the growing demand. You can't just buy, plant and plug in what isn't there.

However, think of how many American jobs could be created by employing more people to make the things.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Like these...

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/10/10/ap4207095.html

Associated Press

Iowa: Keokuk Turbine Plant to Employ 350

By DAVID PITT 10.10.07, 3:08 PM ETDES MOINES, Iowa -

A Beloit, Wis., company said Wednesday it will build a $34 million wind turbine tower factory in Keokuk and hire 350 people.

Hendricks Holding Co. Inc. bought Herning, Denmark-based wind turbine tower maker Roug A/S early this year, and that company under the name Hendricks Industries will build the Keokuk factory. It will pay workers an average of $23.50 an hour to build the towers, which each weigh about 80 tons and stand 260 feet tall.

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