Wind Generation

[Hay Dude]

Actually, coal fired and nuclear plants are closing at a breakneck pace. And in the next 10 years it will be crazy the number of plants that will close. It's actually disturbing because coal and nuclear is being replaced by gas sites, gas turbines and combined cycle plants, but there's no way they can be built fast enough to replace what's being closed down. Now it would be a stretch to say any of these plants are being replaced by wind and solar but that's the politcal narrative.

China opens a new coal fired power plant at the average pace of like 1 per month, WHILE they sell us Chinese made solar panels and wind mills.

They must laugh at us until their ribs hurt! We will fund them for decades through Chinese made solar panel and wind turbine purchases until their ascension to the #1 super power.

 

[workinonit]

They are buying the ones that close down in the US. Almost all of the closures are disassembled and sold to China. I'm sure none of them have SO2 or NOx scrubbers on them like the ones in the US are mandated to, which is why most of them are closing.

 

[Hay Dude]

They are buying the ones that close down in the US. Almost all of the closures are disassembled and sold to China. I'm sure none of them have SO2 or NOx scrubbers on them like the ones in the US are mandated to, which is why most of them are closing.

And the good thing is the pollution they create stays within the borders of China.

 

[workinonit]

Absolutely, their wind just swirls.

 

[SandburRanch]

So we still haven't seen a cable being laid and don't have a connection to anywhere .

 

[MossRoad]

It's been 2 years and my question has not been answered so i'll ask again in a slightly different context .

Has anyone ever seen a cable being buried from a commercial windmill to a point that electricity can be distributed ?

Yes. I watched a wind farm being constructed over a 9 year period north of Lafayette, IN. They seem to build them in rows of 5-6, then stagger them around the area. Lines are buried to what looks like what a sub-station looks like in a town or city. They air stationed around the area of the wind farm. Eventually, there's a connection to the large power lines on the towers that lead away from the site to who knows where.

 

[MossRoad]

So we still haven't seen a cable being laid and don't have a connection to anywhere .

Drive around a wind farm and eventually, you'll find a point or several points where the power joins the electrical grid for distribution.

 

[dodge man]

You guys ever hear of Bluetooth? They hook up to the grid that way.

Before I retired I did a lot of survey work on a 62 turbine wind farm. Everything is underground except the overhead lines where they tie into the grid.

 

[MossRoad]

Like this one here...

 

[MossRoad]

And this one here...

 

[MossRoad]

And this one...

 

[Hay Dude]

Just drove from Ohio back to eastern PA for the 20th time and saw the uglification of the mountain range with wind turbines on them.

 

[workinonit]

Dude, come on. The cables are underground and all of them I've seen have local switchyards just as several others have said. I suppose you are looking for someone that was standing there when they were built? Conspiracy theory much.

So we still haven't seen a cable being laid and don't have a connection to anywhere .

 

[Tinhack]

A year ago this month, we had no electricity for a week because the wind farms crapped out due to cold weather. They took our electric and sent it up North. All the while, we stayed below freezing. I hope all those bird killers crash and burn.

 

[workinonit]

Progress.

 

[jyoutz]

Even more interesting is trying to find a single power plant that has be replaced by wind power? All those billions of tax payer money spent for green energy, and you have to keep the power plants running 24/7 because the windmills are so unreliable, and difficult to keep working.

Another thing that would be fun is trying to find a windmill farm that exists without government funding to keep it going.

And the easiest is to count all the windmills that are in disrepair and falling apart because the government funding ended and it costs more to maintain them then they generate in revenue.

You are about ten years behind the times. The big incentives for wind energy have expired and they are producing wind energy cheaply. You don’t seem to understand how power is generated and distributed. The wind energy doesn’t feed into a power plant; the wind farm is the power plant feeding into the distribution grid. So does the solar farms and the new natural gas power plants. Modern electrical generation is a mix of sources; no some old fashioned single coal plant providing all the power.

 

[MossRoad]

A year ago this month, we had no electricity for a week because the wind farms crapped out due to cold weather. They took our electric and sent it up North. All the while, we stayed below freezing. I hope all those bird killers crash and burn.

Wind power's role in Texas grid failure less than first estimated

An updated analysis of the Texas power crisis shows lost natural gas power generation was the most significant component of the February outages.

www.texastribune.org

 

[jyoutz]

A year ago this month, we had no electricity for a week because the wind farms crapped out due to cold weather. They took our electric and sent it up North. All the while, we stayed below freezing. I hope all those bird killers crash and burn.

Your Texas wind farms froze just like your Texas natural gas lines feeding power plants froze because in Texas they didn’t winterize the system. Meanwhile in adjacent New Mexico and the rest of the plains states, during the same cold weather the wind and gas plants kept operating because they were designed for winter. The problem is not with the technology; the problem is that they didn’t build the systems correctly in Texas.

 

[jyoutz]

It's been 2 years and my question has not been answered so i'll ask again in a slightly different context .

Has anyone ever seen a cable being buried from a commercial windmill to a point that electricity can be distributed ?

Yes. I’ve seen solar farms under construction. They run underground transmission lines that tie into the overhead grid lines.

 

[EddieWalker]

I understand how wind farms generate electricity when the wind is blowing at the proper speed, and how they just sit there when the wind isn't correct. I also understand that when they are producing energy, this adds to the amount of power available. Do you understand that when they are not working, then they are not adding to the grid?

Reasons for them to not work isn't just limited to a lack of wind. Freezing has proven to be a significant problem. Dust is the biggest issues. Where the wind blows, there is a lot of dust. Dust wears away all moving parts. Wind mills require a massive amounts of lubrication. Windmills require a massive amount of man hours to provide this lubrication. And windmills wear out quickly because they are constantly sand blasted by what's flying around in the air from the wind.

The cost of the windmill, the cost to transport it, the cost of the land, and the cost to assemble it, does not come close to paying for it. Add maintenance to the equation and how short of a lifespan they have, means that every wind mill loses money. It is feel good science. It's politics at it's worse.