ot: cool windmill article

[thwart]

These things are humungous. Great video shots.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/23/business/energy-environment/big-windmills.html

[Fiertetimestwo]

I agree- amazing.

My partner's nephew (who lives in Scotland) is a qualified ropes technician and works for wind farms repairing the blades. He travels all over the world- in fact he is in Australia at the moment.

They stop the turbines and tie the blade to the tower pointing down and then they abseil down the outside with resins and glues etc to fix up defects on the blades. Makes my desk job seem a little dull!

[Louis]

As long as they don't kill too many birds.

[cetuximab]

As long as they don't kill too many birds.

People get upset about the birds killed by windmills. It is just more conspicuous.

House cats and feral cats kill many fold more birds, but we only see a fraction.

Better than greenhouse emitting natural gas and coal generation. I hate dams.

I would advocate for nuclear power. But NIBY...nobody wants the waste in their state.

[bigbill]

Drive through West Texas, giant windmills everywhere you look. People used to complain about the west Texas winds, now it keeps the lights on.

So, yay windmills, if it takes the place of a coal or natural gas plant, that's a good thing. Too bad about the birds, but:http://lae.mit.edu/2013/08/29/air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-u-s/

[oldpotatoe]

Drive through West Texas, giant windmills everywhere you look. People used to complain about the west Texas winds, now it keeps the lights on.

So, yay windmills, if it takes the place of a coal or natural gas plant, that's a good thing. Too bad about the birds, but:http://lae.mit.edu/2013/08/29/air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-u-s/

Better figure out batteries and such first..altho I think windmills and solar panels are a great idea.

About how much power does the Sun produce? The Sun's output is 3.8 x 1033 ergs/second, or about 5 x 1023 horsepower. How much is that? It is enough energy to melt a bridge of ice 2 miles wide, 1 mile thick, and extending the entire way from the Earth to the Sun, in one second.J

[flydhest]

Drive through West Texas, giant windmills everywhere you look. People used to complain about the west Texas winds, now it keeps the lights on.



So, yay windmills, if it takes the place of a coal or natural gas plant, that's a good thing. Too bad about the birds, but:http://lae.mit.edu/2013/08/29/air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-u-s/



Indeed. Although it is ironic that West Texas is where the Permian is. Lots of oil production coming from there now and for the foreseeable future.

[bigbill]

Indeed. Although it is ironic that West Texas is where the Permian is. Lots of oil production coming from there now and for the foreseeable future.

There are oil wells in the same fields as the windmills. There are landowners in West Texas who are living comfortably on their mineral rights and windmill leases. I'll do a ride this weekend in Muenster, TX which is dotted with windmills and the "big" climb is up Windmill Hill.

[Richard]

Windmills are great. I don't remember the pols name, but I remember a video clip of his statement that the risk of wind power was that it would "use up" the wind if we constructed too many windmills. Pretty funny.

[Clean39T]

Windmills are great. I don't remember the pols name, but I remember a video clip of his statement that the risk of wind power was that it would "use up" the wind if we constructed too many windmills. Pretty funny.

There is a bit of truth to this. You get a wake effect, so you can only site so many turbines in one area; and if you have a project, you certainly don't want someone else putting theirs between the prevailing winds and yours...

[Clean39T]

If anyone wants a look at what's actually happening in California due to the massive buildout of solar (and impact of legacy wind generation), take a gander at this slide deck:

http://www.caiso.com/Documents/Briefing_Renewables_RecentGridOperations-Presentation-Mar2018.pdf

15,000MW (ie., 15-Gigawatts) of dispatchable generation (coal, gas, battery, or hydro) has to be ramped up within three hours to keep the lights on in California when the sun starts going down.

There are solutions other than just building more thermal generation to manage an ever-steeper evening ramping need, but as usual, what makes sense on paper doesn't always translate into rational action..

This is a good summary of the art of the possible: http://www.raponline.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rap-lazar-teachingtheduck2-2016-feb-2.pdf

Similar trends play out in AZ and NV. Texas is more wind dominated though, and so doesn't have the same predictable pattern. Hard to say which is a greater challenge to grid stability - daily difficulties, or coincident haphazard events.

[AngryScientist]

If anyone wants a look at what's actually happening in California due to the massive buildout of solar ...

interestingly i just visited the largest (under a single roof) battery storage location in California.

Things are changing at a pace i would have never seen coming, it's a really interesting time in the industry!

[Clean39T]

interestingly i just visited the largest (under a single roof) battery storage location in California.

Things are changing at a pace i would have never seen coming, it's a really interesting time in the industry!

Sure is. My pops just visited the Tesla giga-factory (battery production) facility in Reno. His big takeaway is that they've vertically integrated everything - right down to Hertz having an equipment rental location setup in their parking lot for just-in-time delivery.

[tculbreath]

Amazing! I had a chance to work on a wind project in Western Kansas out of High School. It was the first in the state and they were massive. These things would dwarf the ones I worked on. The technology and assembly process is amazing!

[Black Dog]

People get upset about the birds killed by windmills. It is just more conspicuous.

House cats and feral cats kill many fold more birds, but we only see a fraction.

Better than greenhouse emitting natural gas and coal generation. I hate dams.

I would advocate for nuclear power. But NIBY...nobody wants the waste in their state.

This by the billions, literally. House cats are decimating bird populations in North America.

[Richard]

Clean39T, I understand what your point is, but the funny thing about the statement by the pol was that he meant that we would diminish winds world wide as if it was a consumable resource.