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Tuesday 22 March 2011

Wind Turbines are Crap

bent wind turbine

I had to laugh when I had my weekly E-mail from “Wind Energy Update”. (They think that I’m a wind contractor or some such).

Anyhoo. It seems that all is not well for monopile wind turbines situated off our shore. It’s all to do with stuff like the material you put between your bathroom tiles.

Grout.

Gaze at an offshore wind farm and it is hard not to be moved by the might and power of it all. Unfortunately for the industry, however, at least one element of many offshore installations does not have all the might and power it should… and its effect is moving in a more worrying way.

In a September 2010 Europe wind energy advisory note, IHS Emerging Energy Research alerted: “At approximately 600 of Europe’s installed 948 offshore turbines, dissolved grouting has shifted turbines within monopile foundations.

“Retrofitting these could cost developers as much as EUR€120,000 per turbine, equalling up to €9.6 million at larger projects such as Horns Rev, although future projects using monopiles are not assumed to be affected.”

But then I read this.

“These supports are not designed to transfer bending moment from wind loading. Due to the dynamic loading from the wind, fatigue cracks can initiate and propagate into the main steel structure. How severe it is depends on loading and utilisation with respect to capacity.”

Why design something that is unsuitable for the force of the very element that you’re trying to harness? Really. Shear force and bending moments are Applied Mechanics 101.

8 comments:

  1. Tee hee... what about this then?

    Wind Power

    Fancy living near that thing?

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  2. Doomed bird-slicers, plus Moonbat finally understanding nuclear power might not be the devil's work - what a good day for scientific sense!
    (No carbon was emitted during this comment.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great link Sue, ta.

    I'm sort of alright about wind-farms at sea where at least the noise isn't so bad and they don't spoil the scenery but, as you say, you'd think that by now these so called experts could have sorted out stuff like grouting.

    ps James Delingpole in the Telegraph informs that in the past decade there have been 10 accidental deaths in the nuclear power industry while the wind power craze has caused 40 deaths in the same decade.

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  4. They call them renewable energy. Well they're right in that, as their service life is expected to be only 18 years.

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  5. Yes I've seen that Sue. Truly scary.

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  6. I agree with banned.

    If we're going to actually arrive at a 100% green world we'll have to assume that the turbines are decent enough; and scaremongering bullshit like this is not to be tollerated.

    also, we have to assume that the voting system does actually work; so the conservatives can cut out their 'vote no on A.V' bullshit too.

    WE CAN DO IT!!! 100% GREEN!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Shoe.

    It's pie in the sky to even think of a green world. It is possible, but it would mean the death of millions. Without reasonable cost power, how do you think we can get the third world out of starvation? Wind turbines and their hidden subsidies are condemning even us in the developing world in the near future, to stagnate. Effectively we will be forced to ration power unless we build a new generation of power stations in the very near future.

    Just imagine. You live in a modern house and we have a severe winter. A coal fired power staion breaks down plunging you into a lack of power. Those bird mincers won't supply you with the power we need due to the lack of wind caused by the high pressure sitting over you.

    Central heating. Sorry, doesn't work without electricity.

    No fireplace in your new home. Oh dear.

    Gas cooker won't work because it nedds electricity to power the safety devices.

    Shopping for food (that you can't cook anyway). No power to charge up the geewiz.

    100% Green!

    You are awarded the most honorable order of Watermelon 1st class

    ReplyDelete

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