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wind turbines

Read and learn more about wind turbines. For more, visit the Renewable Energy website EnergySourceRenewable.org

Q: Wind Turbines.?
Governments in england are saying they want to build wind turbines out to sea where it is aparently windiest.
What i’ve been thinking though, in geography we’ve been learning about hurricanes, and one of the things we learnt is that hurricane produce like million of megawatts of energy or something.
So what i thought is why don’t government build these wind turbines near hurricane prone zones? Make a use of all these natural disasters, convert them into energy! If a hurricane produces so much energy why don’t we try and obtain that energy, make hurricane have some pro’s and not just destructive cons.
What do you think?

A: … because of the destructive cons – the wind turbines are not engineered (as of yet) to withstand hurricanes… (much like oil rigs in the gulf of mexico getting destroyed by the waves and winds), and not ever KNOWING the true track of what a hurricane will be it is hard to put them out there and could cost alot of money with little production. . but this is a great question none the less.

Q: Wind turbines ……..?
What type of non-renewable energy is Wind turbines replacing?
Also how is this wind energy being used, what are the wind turbines powering?

A: Those are broad questions. There could be several answers. Here’s one
Coal
Used to supply power to cities in the western US

Q: wind turbines?
can you please write me a paragraph on wind turbines and their uses and advantages and dis-advantages

A: Here are the highlights, you can write your own paragraph.

Uses: Generate electricity

Advantages: Free, renewable energy; does not emit greenhouse gases.

Disadvantages: Kills birds; perceived as an eyesore; electricity not reliable.

Q: wind Turbines?
I want to purchase small size wind turbine. it can produce 20 to 100 KVA. how much does it cost and how many pole do i need. I am going to use at beach area.

A: I hope you have your numbers confused. a 20 KVA (20,000 watt) wind turbine with its tower could cost around $40,000. If you were to tie it to the grid, perhaps another $10,000. Maybe the same for batteries.

Take a look at wind turbines on the Internet.

Q: Why do wind turbines have to rotate at a constant speed?
I am aware that the blades of a wind turbine are capable of ‘feathering’ or rotating on their own axis so as to adjust the angle of attack from the wind and thereby regulate the rotation of the turbine as a whole. The faster the wind speed the slighter the angle of the blades to the wind and therefore the lower the turning force.

But what is the importance of maintaining a constant rotational speed? Do I understand this correctly? Is the feathering simply to keep the rotational speed of the turbine within broadly acceptable limits or is it very important to maintain a constant rotaional speed with minimal variation?

People have often commented that large wind turbines always seem to be going at the same speed regardless of the wind speed.

A: They dont rotate at a constant speed, however they may appear to do so because they ar generally positioned where there is a constant wind!

In reality the blades move about their axis to make them as efficient at harnessing the wind as possible, and also to prevent damage to the turbine. In high winds the propellors shed the wind and stop to prevent damage.

Inside there are rectifiers and transformers and all sorts of trickery that changes the power produced to a form that can be exported and used (te correct frequency, phase, voltage etc), and this makes the speed of the rotor irrelevant.

You often see the turbines stopped as they turn to face a new wind direction and they do this by altering the blade angle rather than with mechanical brakes!

Q: What are the drawbacks to using wind turbines or solar panels for providing all power to a home?
What are the drawbacks to using wind turbines or solar panels for providing all power to a home?

A. The wind and sun are not constant, so there would be times when no electricity would be generated.
B. The wind and sun are constant, so there would be plenty of electricity for the home.
C. Wind and solar power are inefficient and too expensive to use and maintain.
D. Wind and solar power are efficient, but they are not able to produce enough electricity for a single home.

A: again trying to help..again thnx 4 the previous………
nothing else…………but A.
NO COMMENTS ON THE OTHER OPTIONS….
except these there is another drawback…….its when your brother breaks the solar panel after quarrel with you……then no electricity will b produced………….hope this funny answer u liked……..its just to make yahhooooooooooo answer FUNNNNN…………

Q: Is it true that wind turbines can never produce enough energy in their lifespans to offset its creation?
I’ve heard on several occasions that wind turbines are not economically feasible because it takes an inordinate amount of time and money, such that it will never produce enough energy to recoup that which was lost in building the turbine. Is this true? Can anyone give me a source?

A: Hey Patrick, this concept has been around since about 1998 when it first surfaced in regard to solar panels. There was a lot of complaints that solar panels never earn back their, “Embodied Energy,” which is a phrase referring to how much energy it takes to mine raw materials, ship them to a factory, build the product, ship it to it’s destination and install it. To be honest, it is difficult to put an exact energy price on something like that, there are almost limitless variables, such as which mine was used, where it was shipped, how it is installed and used in the end, and so on. A non profit group called, Solar Energy International finally offered some grants to a few colleges to research this. In the end, they couldn’t come up with an exact timeline, but a range based on the above variables.

First of all, solar panels actually do repay their embodied energy some time between 1.5 and 6 years after they are installed. Virtually all manufacturers warranty their product to last at least 25 years, and typically they operate well beyond this time. Similar work was done later with wind turbines, and the results are very similar. The main difference being the range of payback time is wider, meaning it’s possible for a turbine to repay its embodied energy faster, like in less than a year, but it may take as long as 9 years. This is because shipping a utility sized wind turbine can take a huge bite into its embodied energy budget depending on how far it has to go. Solar panels can fit in the back seat of a good sized car, some wind turbines have specially designed hauling vehicles that might have to drive across the country, or across the street. But when you look deeper down this rabbit hole, you eventually learn that non of this matters, I’ll explain.

Electricity has been around since Thomas Edison nearly burned down his house running high amounts of current through bailing wires inside old mason jars, so it isn’t going away anytime soon. The question becomes, “What is the best way to produce it?” Let’s assume you build a 10 KW wind turbine, and put it alongside an efficient conventional power source, say a natural gas fired turbine 10 KW generator. Which will earn back its embodied energy faster? The answer is the gas generator never does. You have to remember that once you build a natural gas generator, coal plant, or any other non renewable energy based power plant, you now have to feed it fuel for the rest of it’s life. It’s conversion rate will always be something below 100%, so in the end it slowly digs itself a deeper and deeper energy hole that it can never crawl out of. At least the wind turbine has a chance to get even in it’s lifetime. This is the key to what makes renewable energy so great, it’s really the difference between buying a home and renting an apartment, one day the home will be paid off, the apartment never is.

We live in a home that is powered by the wind and sun today. About 12 years ago we started looking into solar and wind when our electricity was constantly going out. It began as a small backup plan, just to run a few lights and some electronics. Over time it became more of a hobby and lifestyle, like growing your own tomatoes instead of buying them at the store, we just grew electrons in our garden. Now our home generates over 90% of its own electricity, and we use the power company as our backup source. Even though it will take years to get even with the power bill, it’s worth it to us, and we’ve turned a lot of heads. Once each year now I am invited to the local schools to teach solar power to the 5th graders, then they run a field trip out to our house to see a working solar and wind powered home. Since then the power companies have been busy building wind farms and looking into solar, geothermal and biomass energy. They even have a methane plant alongside a landfill in the next county. Most people are not aware of these things, but they are happening. They are busy complaining about wind mills never earning back their manufacturing energy, solar being too expensive, or hybrid cars not really saving and gas. There is research on these subjects, and it’s available for the asking if you look for it online. My suggestion is you look into it and become better informed insteading of asking hacks like me online for advice. I’ll include some sources below. Hope this answers your question. Good luck Patrick, and take care, Rudydoo

Q: Is there a company that makes and sells wind turbines coupled with a hydrogen generator preferably in Europe?
I am trying to find out if there is a system (for sale) that delivers electricity from a wind turbine, and when there is no electric consumption another device creates hydrogen (through electrolysis). The hydrogen is stored and used later on for periods when there is not enough wind… The extra extra electricity can be “dumped” in the national grid after the tank is full. The system is for 2 3 houses max, there is enough space, and the area is suitable for wind turbines. Thanks.

A: The Neitherlands or Holland has something like that. (Just search the web)

Q: How will wind power create the materials needed to manufacture wind turbines?
Wind turbines have the evil plastic in their structure. Also wind provides energy, not matter.

A: Wind power provides very little net energy. It is a non-starter. The use of plastics in wind turbines (as in ALL turbines) is a non-issue and completely misses the point.

Wind energy is a tempting IDEA but a disappointing reality. Wind power is so unreliable and variable that equivalent standby power has to be available all the time, wasting energy. Wind turbine construction is heavily subsidised and the electricity produced (even without allowing for the hidden cost of standby cover) is so expensive it is uneconomical. Power companies only buy wind generated power because they HAVE to by law and they cover the excessive cost by charging us more for ALL our electricity. If it wasn’t for the subsidies (direct grants plus subsidies through us paying more for conventional power) there would be no wind energy in the UK. It is an appalling waste of money that could be better spent on more productive, more economical, more reliable power generation using other technologies.

Tidal power is stronger and totally predictable but receives only a fraction of the subsidy of wind power. Ignoring ideology and looking for a realistic practical solution, we need to be building nuclear power capacity plus clean-burn coal fired power stations with tidal power as a longer term source.

Q: How many wind turbines would it take to power a school?
One of the schools in my school district is being renovated, and I was wondering how many (or maybe only one) wind turbines would it take to power the school? There are also 3 schools within a half mile of it, so how many would it take to power all of them too?

A: like 5000 they don’t produce barely no power i play sim city i know

Q: What forms of energy and energy transformations are involved in wind turbines?
Hey
Im doing a research about wind turbines and how it generates energy using wind power
I need to know the energy conversions involved in the process of the wind turbines.
Im not quite sure on what forms of energy are involved

Here are all of the forms of energy:
thermal, electrical, radiant, nuclear potential, gravitation potential, kinetic, elastic potential, sound, and chemical potential.

I also need to know the wind turbines energy transformation equation.
For example a microwave oven,
electrical energy -> radiant energy -> thermal energy

Please help :)
help will be greatly appreciated and rewarded with points ofc

A: The mass and velocity of the air give it KE
The wind turbine blades convert the KE to ME (mechanical energy; the one you left out of your list of ‘all’ the forms of energy…!)
The generator converts the ME to electrical energy, the most useful grade of energy.

At each conversion point, some of the input energy is not used, causing the output energy to be less than the input. For ex: The wind downstream of the blades is slowed, but not stopped. Ergo, it still has some of its KE and the blades have picked up the rest as ME. As I recall, the maximum efficiency of any blade system is about 36%. The ME to EE step is about 90% efficient. Of course, all the efficiencies multiply, so you come out with less than 36%, but considering that the original wind energy is created directly from solar heating of land masses (ie, free), things don’t look so gloomy…….

Q: Do you think the large wind turbines for wind energy are unsightly?
I have heard that many people believe the wind turbines are ugly and should be kept out of the view of homes. I believe they are beautiful and are necessary. What do you think?

A: I think they are beautiful and should count as a sculpture. It is a perception issue. We are a glutenous nation and we tolerate smog, but not wind turbines or solar panels.

Q: How many wind turbines would it take to power the UK?
This isn’t a joke, despite how the question is worded ;)

To power the whole of the UK solely on wind generated power using the kinetic energy produced alone, how many of those huge turbines would we need to have?

Also, do you think is a feasible solution to the energy crisis?

A: Great question.

I came across 30,000 as the figure. They cost approx £2M each. That’s £60B. We could do that in 5 years with 1p on income tax or NI. Site them out at sea where no one can see them.

Couple that with a small turbine on every house and solar – give local grants for this and we’d be pretty much energy independent within 5 years and carbon free.

This sounds too easy – what’s the problem?

Backup and intermittency – Use nuclear, hydro-electric and bio-mass burning energy plants – all oil and coal fired power stations closed. Get some tidal energy systems installed – tidal is much more consistent that wind. Have battery storage at home (some safety issues here but not insurmountable and really no different than gaving a gas supply). That would sort those issues out.

Job losses – Yes but these would be offset by jobs in these new power sectors.

Impact on oil prices and the UKCS Oil industry – Probably a price drop in oil but as these are diminishing resourses there would be upward price pressure from market forces supply and demand therefore – probably overall no change.

We could export our surpluses giving us a tidy way of clearing the costs of converting to wind, tidal solar etc. The Oil industry would be unchanged – it’s in decline anyway.

Unhooking ourselves from gas – Micro generation fuel cells using hydrogen from local hydrolosis using clean wind energy would sort that out.

We’d be energy independent and carbon free with a significant new export revenue source. Surely this is do-able. I think I’ll write to my MP about this – what about you?

Q: How will wind turbines affect the climate?
I see that that East Anglia Offshore Wind, Ltd. is going to develop a 7.2GW wind farm. This begs the question: if the turbines are approximately 50% efficient then how will the reduction in wind energy by approximately 15GW affect the climate in the region around the wind farm?

A: Wind farms can most assuredly have a negative affect on local climate:

“Wind Farms Impacting Weather”
“Environmental Engineers Detect Turbines’ Turbulence Effects”

October 1, 2005 — Wind farms may have an impact on local weather patterns. As environmental engineers have discovered, wind farm propellers create a lot of turbulence in their wake, mixing air up and down with effects that can be detected for miles. But more efficient rotors may significantly reduce this problem.

With a new power source comes an impact to our environment. Roy says, “Large wind farms can significantly affect local meteorology.” He studied these massive machines and believes wind farms can actually impact our weather because wind turns the blades of the turbine around a rotor, which helps generate electricity the blades create a lot of turbulence in the wake.
Roy says, “It’s something like the wake from the propeller of a boat. Now this added turbulences mixes air up and down and creates a warming and drying effect near the ground.” He says the affects can be felt for miles and could have an impact on air conditioning costs and more money may have to be spent on irrigation of nearby crops.
He believes the solution is simple — create better rotors. “We found that low-turbulence rotors are more economically efficient, they tend to generate more electricity than conventional rotors,” he says.

Wind farms tend to impact the weather more at night, which is when the wind is usually stronger and the most energy is generated.

BACKGROUND: Wind farms are growing in popularity as an alternative energy source, but an increasing number of critics are concerned about possible negative impacts on local weather. Researchers at Duke and Princeton Universities used computer modeling to determine any possible adverse impacts of a large wind farm in the Great Plains region.
WHAT THEY FOUND: Large groups of power-generating windmills could have a small influence on a region’s climate. All large wind turbines disrupt natural airflow to extract energy from wind. During the day, the effects from the disturbed airflow are negligible, since natural turbulence mixes the lower layers of the atmosphere. But the researchers found that in the predawn hours, when the atmosphere is less turbulent, a large windmill array could influence the local climate, raising temperatures by about 2 degrees Celsius (about 4 Fahrenheit) for several hours. The rotating blades could also redirect high-speed winds down to the Earth’s surface, boosting evaporation of soil moisture.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2005/1012-wind_farms_impacting_weather.htm

http://www.climateandenergy.org/Explore/WindHealth/Index.htm

Q: How much Wind Turbines Does it take to Make the Energy in a Power Plant?
How much Wind Turbines Does it take to Make the Energy in a Power Plant?

A: Your question is confusing!

Do you mean: how many wind turbines does it take to produce the same power output as a power station?

The answer depends on a lot of things. Modern power stations vary in size. A ‘typical’ one is somewhere between 1000MW and 1600MW. (but you can get bigger ones – Drax is over 4000MW)

Wind turbines tend to be between 1.5MW and 3.6MW each, but 5MW models are being released this year and 7.5MW and 10MW ones are being researched.

So at maximum output, a 1600MW coal power station would require about 640 2.5MW turbines to match it. Or 320 of the new 5MW turbines.

The total amount of energy produced is different though; wind turbines on average only produce ~30% of their total possible output (ie their ‘capacity factor’ is about 30%). Nuclear power stations, because of their low marginal cost, tend to have a ‘capacity factor’ of 90% or so. Other power stations like coal and gas may be anywhere from 40-90%, but the US average is 55%:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/plugs/plepa00a.html

So a 1600MW coal power station will average 880MW output. You’d need almost 1200 2.5MW turbines to get the same average power output; or 600 new 5MW models.

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