WIND FARM To match the output of traditional power plants, hundreds of wind turbines are usually installed in one favorable location, such as the Klondike wind farm in Oregon pictured here.
Image: Courtesy of GE
More In This Article
Listen to this Podcast
-
The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
Read More »
In the past decade the amount of electricity produced by harnessing the wind in the U.S. has grown 13-fold, now supplying some 2.3 percent of U.S. electricity needs, or enough juice to power the state of Wisconsin. Wind turbines have been rising above the plains in Texas, cropping up on ridge lines in Oregon and even threatening to appear offshore in Massachusetts's Nantucket Sound—all to take advantage of the uneven heating of Earth's surface that creates air currents, or wind.
But in order to make a significant contribution to the effort to combat climate change, such wind power would have to provide roughly 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs—and that means turbines covering some 400,000 square kilometers, or roughly the entire state of Montana. Whereas other uses for land can continue beneath the sweep of a turbine's massive blades, such sprawling wind energy infrastructure does mean that many more people are going to become familiar—for good or for ill—with this modern technology for turning the breeze into electricity.
So what goes into a latter-day descendant of the creaky old windmill on a sodbuster's farm? This slide show walks through the parts of a modern wind turbine and how they work together to generate power.
Slide Show: The Making of a Modern Wind Turbine and Wind Farm
See what we're tweeting about
34 Comments
Add CommentIs it just me - or is anyone else really annoyed by the incessant Shell popup on every Sciam article?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs far as the wind turbine thing - It would be "fantabulous" if these simple wonders power the whole country... as long as they are painted purple.
I am also very annoyed by the Shell push poll.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"One of the challenges of wind power is that the wind often blows best far away from where the most electricity is used—in densely populated metropolitan areas such as New York City and Los Angeles."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe United States is blessed with extremely reliable and powerful offshore winds in close proximity to the Northeast megalopolis where 17% of the population lives. The gentle slope of the Atlantic Ocean provides the potential for large wind farms in relatively shallow waters, but far enough offshore to be almost out of sight. The recent announcement of Google's investment in the Atlantic Wind Connection, a submarine transmission backbone stretching 350 miles from New Jersey to Virginia is an important step in exploiting this resource. Google says that the potential is 60,000 MW. New York City peak usage is just over 11,000 MW.
Some of the electricity used in New York City is transmitted from as far away as James Bay, Quebec, about 1,000 miles north. 80% is produced within the city, mostly from natural gas; however, the natural gas is transmitted via pipelines from Texas, Louisiana, the Gulf of Mexico, and Western Canada, anywhere from 1,400 to 2,500 miles away. The wind is far closer than the resources used today.
Winds offshore from Los Angles are powerful, but would be harder to exploit because of the Pacific Ocean depths.
This article goes hand in hand with these 2...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSolar manufacturing plant using robotics
http://www.electroiq.com/index/display/photovoltaics-article-display/6831305618/articles/Photovoltaics-World/bos-components/module-assembly/2010/july/automating-pv_module.html
Electric vehicle mass production plant using solar assist
http://www.plugin.com/2010/08/ford-focus-ev-gets-green-plant/
I would hope the wind generating manufacturing plants are also using clean energy and robotics to create their products. After the initial cost, they ought to be more competitive with the Chinese labor cost.
Also do a search bladeless wind turbine. Interesting products.
You write, "But in order to make a significant contribution to the effort to combat climate change, such wind power would have to provide roughly 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs—and that means turbines covering some 400,000 square kilometers, or roughly the entire state of Montana." Someone has added a decimal place somewhere. The 20% Wind Energy by 2030 Technical Report from DOE, available at 20percentwind.org, states that roughly 61,000 sq-km would be required, or 15% of the amount you cite. Further, 95-98% of the land "required" would still be available for compatible uses such as ranching or farming. Regards, Tom Gray, American Wind Energy Association
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm glad to see wind power increasing...like another poster(DInkSinger), I think its cool that Google has gotten into the game.....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat being said...some of the statements need correction on the article...
1) If the tower is 90 meters tall, I don't believe the blades are 100 yards long(unless they're digging troughs;-)...probably should be a 100 meters in diameter.....aah..one of the slides points this out...
2) One paragraph states that the energy captured from wind has increase 13 fold in the last decade and another states its doubled...which is it...
Slide 7 says the gearbox increases speed to 18 000 RPM. I think it should be 1800 RPM.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso I find this slide show a little simplistic. I'd be more interested in finding out if the generators are DC or AC and how the power is synchronized with the grid. Or if the blade tips are close to the speed of sound. Or maybe harmonic vibrations that could develop along the axis of the blades. Or what happens when wind speed at 140 meter altitude is much higher that at 10 meter (that is 90 plus and minus 50 meters).
Tom,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for your comment. Given a capacity factor of roughly 25 percent (which is lower than what DoE granted) the number of turbines needed increases--basing that capacity factor on historic European data from 2000-2008. In turn, that's where we came up with 400,000 square kilometers, though we also note, as you did, that this doesn't exclude other uses of the land.
Hi Wayne,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo your question (2) 13-fold is the correct figure:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/electricity.html
Thanks for catching that!
santaidm,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this18000 is the figure, believe it or not and I can understand your frustration. Your questions are good ones for a follow-up but, in the meantime, I can say that the wind turbine generators are generally AC. As for lift and its properties along the blade, well, I feel like there's at least one or two PhD theses in that ;)
I just registered so I could add this comment. What happened to the Scientific American that would leave you challanged and where you would have to spend an hour reading an article to understand it? I saw pretty much the same artical in some other publication, probably written from the same PR release from Google.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLinear extrapolation? Allow for some logarithmic advances! And factor in the effect of high voltage direct current transmission.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs for ocean depths blocking wind energy installations, that's a bit like someone in 1930 claiming that internal combustion engines and the shortcomings of propeller technology set a limit to the future utility of airplanes. The article is about potential for the not too distant future - but that must surely cover at least two decades? And a lot happened in aeronautics between 1930 and 1950.
David,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for your response. I would urge you to not set aside so lightly DOE's calculations on land use--the DOE report was the work of some of the foremost experts in the field, carried out under the Bush Administration over a year and a half, and I can assure you they did not fudge the numbers to wind's advantage. Historic experience in Europe is not particularly applicable, as average wind speeds there are lower--you cite a capacity factor figure of 25%, and modern American projects typically average 35% or more. Finally, my quick back-of-envelope calculations indicate that even at 25% CF, the area needed would be approximately one-third of the 400,000 sq-km you cite. I'll try to do a more thorough look at this by tomorrow. (I've logged in with a different username, btw, because the site would not recognize my previous login combination.) Regards, Tom Gray, American Wind Energy Association
Wind and solar and even wave power do not have the capacity factors we need for reliable baseload power. It's just so much fantasy. Denmark spent 20 years building wind and got their emissions 'down' to 650 grams Co2 / kWh. France spent 10 years building out nuclear and have their emissions down to 90 grams Co2 / kWh. Go figure.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUntil batteries can store 100 times more energy 1000 times cheaper, intermittency remains the killer. Gosh, imagine if the sun went down on a quiet, still night? Imagine if we had a whole week of cloud with little wind? Renewable boosters want us to believe they've modelled all of this. They want us to believe they *know* the weather in advance. I'm sorry. Climate change and peak oil are too serious to muck around with expensive, unreliable, weak renewables. We need vast quantities of cheap electricity if we're going to run electric cars and our cities in the future. It's time to get on the same train China and India are investing in, and go nuclear, big time.
Actually, I prefer red.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYep, 2.3% of USA Electricity from Wind. And that 2.3% caused about a 2.3% increase in fossil fuel consumption from the cycling, shadowing, mostly NG power plants. A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY! See:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWind Energy DOES NOT reduce fuel consumption or emissions:
http://www.masterresource.org/2009/11/wind-integration-incremental-emissions-from-back-up-generation-cycling-part-i-a-framework-and-calculator/
Emissions INCREASE, due to Wind Energy in Colorado:
http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wp-content/uploads/BENTEK-How-Less-Became-More.pdf
To understand how Google used Wind as a GREENWASHING SCAM, in order to make a huge profit selling cheap Coal power to New Jersey, on that hyped offshore power line, see:
http://uvdiv.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-spin-transmission-line.html
And I think the people of Wisconsin, like to have power in summer heat waves as well as winter cold spells when Wind is typically NIL, and they like to run their appliances when they need them, not only when the Wind happens to be blowing, so how is Wind going to power Wisconsin? A ridiculous claim.
And modern American Wind projects are more like 30% not 35% as claimed, with 2009 down to 22-29%.(EIA data).
And Land Area use of Wind Turbines, is a Blight on the landscape, it is an IDIOTIC claim that vast areas of decimated wilderness can be ignored because someone can walk or farm between the noisy, dangerous, bird & bat killing monstrosities. With huge areas of access roads and long distance transmission lines. See pictures of Forest destroyed by Wind Turbines here:
http://www.magicalliance.org/Maps/WindFarms/mountaineer3b.jpg
Wind Farms have 400X the footprint and 2000X the cleared land area of Nuclear, not including the dangerous, long distance high voltage transmission lines needed to bring the Wind Energy from the frontiers to civilization.
There is such a shop in which you can <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>Cheap red Lasers</a> and also <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>red Laser Pen</a>. www.mostbuying.com proudly presents some of the most affordable China <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>red Laser Pointer Pen</a> and a variety of <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>Cheap red Lasers</a>. www.mostbuying.com offers new <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>Wholesale red Laser</a> for you. If you are looking for a <a href= http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this>red Laser Pointers</a> shop or want to <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>blue ray laser</a>, I am sure it is a perfect choice for you. Are you <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>Cheap Blue Lasers</a> toiling at looking for a good <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>Blue Laser Pointer Pen</a> to <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>Blue Laser Pen</a>?
There is such a shop in which you can <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>Cheap red Lasers</a> and also <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>red Laser Pen</a>. www.mostbuying.com proudly presents some of the most affordable China <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>red Laser Pointer Pen</a> and a variety of <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>Cheap red Lasers</a>. www.mostbuying.com offers new <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html>Wholesale red Laser</a> for you. If you are looking for a <a href= http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Red-Lasers_category584-b0.html
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this>red Laser Pointers</a> shop or want to <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>blue ray laser</a>, I am sure it is a perfect choice for you. Are you <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>Cheap Blue Lasers</a> toiling at looking for a good <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>Blue Laser Pointer Pen</a> to <a href=http://www.mostbuying.com/cheap-discount-Blue-Lasers_category583-b0.html>Blue Laser Pen</a>?
Correct me if I am wrong , but I am sure I read somewhere that the generators can now be designed to be computer controlled to match electrical output with wind speed by increasing or decreasing the number of coils being magnetized and so regulating the magnetic friction on the blades to match wind speed ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso it is not beyond the wit of computers to have a program set within it so the ice on the blade does not kill anyone, working with temperature and humidity and dew point set-points could soon figure a way to prevent this from happening.
A 2 megawatt wind generator isn't going to give you 6,000 megawatt hours per year, unless it has a capacity factor of over 68%. You'd expect closer to 25% for wind generators, maybe a bit more in some prime locations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is the real cost in energy terms, of a cradle to cradle wind turbine?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf it were not for grants and subsidies from governments, i am sure that they would not make real sense?
Are we not in a peak oil situation with some of the green technologies?
I had the same idea a couple of years ago. The fact is that once captured you must get rid of it if we want to lower CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. So as for CO2 sequestration (pumping compressed CO2 underground) grown plants must be pulverized and than pumped beneath the soil adding water. Using the grown plants as biomass to produce energy will surely not lower carbon concentration in the atmosphere hence global warming.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"A modern wind turbine towers 90 meters in the air and can sport three blades, each longer than a football field."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis would seem to mean such blades would have to cut a trench at least about a meter deep, in whatever direction the wind blows. One wonders how they got such measurements.
Sorry I intended to comment "Flower Power: Genetic Modification Could Amply Boost Plants' Carbon-Capture and Bioenergy Capacity" :-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have worked with wind power from the time I was 15 years old, I am now 64. My father drilled water wells and we would set up windmills over the wells to pump out the water. I have also worked inside Solar Worlds Plant in portland oregon two years ago, who is The manufacutre solar pannles. Solar power has its place, and wind power also has its place. We don't always have wind, and we don't always have the sun shining. We still need power on demand, to make the power grid work. We have over 400 years of coal in the ground in the United States, which we use everyday. I worked on many of these for years, building new plants. They all now have scrubbers to remove the sulfur, and some other contamiments, but they do release C O 2. Every time we breathe in and then out we release c o 2 . Plant life require co2 from the air to grow. There is no proof that co2 has caused the earth to warm. I have read studys that show that when tempatures have went up co2 in the air went up afterwards, not before like Al Gore's great hoax trys to convence us of. Al Gore has stock in a cap and trade organization and will profit big time from a cap and trade law. Please go into google seach and see what a lot of the other scientist are saying now. Global warming is now called climate change, why is that? It is like y2k, a scheme to make a few people rich. Don't be fooled. My email address is deweyjames281.com@gmail.com, write me if you agree , or if you don't. I will take a poll and let everyone know how many of you believe or don't believe in this great hoax. Please study what all the sicientist say , not just the ones that are getting grants to say what the windmill and solar plant people want them to say.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisjames dewey
Nickla Tesla Invented a way to transmit AC Electrical energy but due to lack of funding the project was scrapped. Where did this technology wind up and could this method be used to power autos and other electrically powered transportation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBeing distant from the load centers is not the most import problem with wind power. It is that the wind doesn't blow when you need it. Therefore, all the conventional power plants are still needed to meet the peak load of the grid. This problem is glossed over by people who love these monsters.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Bonneville Power Administration has an interesting web site to illustrate the problem.
http://transmission.bpa.gov/business/operations/wind/baltwg.aspx
It shows the wind, hydro, and thermal generation output along with the total load in nearly real time (every 5 minutes)
A random snapshot I took during the week of October 11 showed the wind output to be nearly zero all week except for the 10 hour period on October 15 during period of low demand. During that period, the hydro power was turned down causing excess water to go over the spillway.
There is evidence that the excess foaming during the periods of excess water going over the spillway is actually harmful to salmon due to increased dissolved nitrogen.
For the BPA grid there is no environmental benefit from all those windmills as both wind and hydro are emission free. For that grid, the windmills are a big waste of money with no measurable benefit.
That conclusion probably applies to other grids as well, but doesn't sit well with the politics of the day.
China now is using its 95% monopoly of rare earth elements (REE) against the US and its allies. Every large wind turbine requires about 4000 pounds of REEs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you ready to read 'MADE IN CHINA' on everything that contains REEs? Boeing aircraft, computers, smart glass, PV cells, advanced batteries, some chemical catalysts, and US weapons also require REEs.
Are wind turbines the best use of a dwindling resource that China will soon stop exporting in 2012?
Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2010/10/27/1417464/first-wind-farm-proposed-in-whitman.html#ixzz13apIuDLo
Read: China Said to Widen Its Embargo of Minerals
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: October 19, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/business/global/20rare.html?_r=1
HONG KONG — China , which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted some shipments of those materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said this week.
And
Decline in Rare Earth Exports Rattles Germany
By JUDY DEMPSEY
Published: October 19, 2010
BERLIN — China’s curtailing of rare earth exports is causing so much concern in Germany that industry and government are joining forces by appealing to the European Commission and the World Trade Organization to intervene, industry officials said Tuesday.
China’s exports of rare earths declining by as much as 40 percent worldwide over the past ten months, according to the Federation of German Industry. That decline has set off alarm bells in Germany, one of the world’s largest export-driven economies and whose industry relies heavily on rare earths.
So great is the anxiety by the business community here that a special conference dedicated to the issue will be held next week in Berlin.
Why is our press ignoring this? Is it because progressives, such as Rep Norm Dicks and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, have shut down so much of US minerals and energy production? We are now reaping the results of ecopoliticians' failed economic policy.
Investigation of wind energy industry data shows some surprising issues, only some which are presented in this article. According to WindEnergyUpdate, a wind industry newsletter, the following (in quotes) are findings from a new report prepared by independent experts and incorporates new strategies and data from over 100 operators and component suppliers. Outside the quotes are my comments:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this• “79% of wind turbines are still under warranty and this under-identifies the true cost of maintenance. This is about to change with the expiration of many new project warranties.”
• “O&M costs for wind power are double or triple the figures originally projected, they are particularly high in the US, which is now the world’s largest wind power market.” “Europe’s premium power prices allow for more preventative maintenance and therefore overall lower maintenance costs than the US”
• “Europe has a 2 to 5% advantage over the US if resource factors are accounted for”. Many wind turbine component manufacturers are in Europe and shipping and installation is simpler. Pacific County perhaps is even more remote from parts suppliers than most, which puts Radar Ridge at the higher cost disadvantage.
• “There is a negative 21% change in wind farm return on investment. This underperformance of wind assets is most likely attributable to both differences in power production and O&M costs over original estimates.” That means the industry has experienced 21% less net income for the money invested than projected.
• “$0.027/kWh (or $27/mWh) is the average values of O&M costs obtained from report surveys. This compares to early estimates by one of the world’s dominant turbine suppliers of $0.005/kWh.” Energy Northwest used an even lower number of $0.0047.
• “A significant amount of R&D is currently going into gearbox reliability. Many gearboxes, designed for a 20-year life, are failing after 6 to 8 years of operation.” It is likely the higher windspeeds and turbulence affecting coastal Washington would increase component fatigue above the average. According to one expert “The same turbine operating reliably in Germany at a less than 20% capacity factor may experience catastrophic failures in the U.S. operating at a 35% capacity factor due to more rigorous wind resource regimes.”
• “At $0.02/kWh, O&M costs are roughly equal to the federal production tax credit offered in the US as a subsidy to make wind energy competitive.” I question whether this subsidy will continue over time as America faces increased financial pressure and debt. A loss of subsidy on an existing project means rate payers pick up the difference. And higher utility costs will drive business and jobs away.
• Will the wind turbines have personnel lifts for maintenance? Without automatic lifts, one report states that it is virtually impossible to expect a wind turbine engineer to climb more than 3 towers in a day, and only one wind turbine manufacturer installs lifts as standard equipment.
• New data shows the downtime for component failure is dramatically longer for blades, gearboxes, and generators, than first estimated in 2006. For example, average rotor blade replacement time now is 22 days from a 2006 projected 3 days.
I am also annoyed by the Shell popup. I have a pop-up blocker, but somehow Shell has gotten around it. Is Shell trying to convince us that they are an ecologically-friendly company - much as was BP?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEclipse : Classing renewables as intermittent is unfair.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile wind and/or solar energy is reduced, biomass pyrolysers could have their power output increased.
Oibafabio : See www.eprida.com to see how pyrolysis converters sequester CO2 by removing the carbon from carbohydrates or hydrocarbons. The method is economically viable now, and could be scaled up or down.
Widmill is a most primitive and non effective machinery.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it possible to score better efficiency was up to the third power better...
This problem ereting towers
can be resolved with Jazz Big Band. Just half of the turbine rotates in one direction and half in another page.
I did this study in the Venturi nozzle turbine and the calculations have a rather surprising results.
http://www.new4stroke.com/Venturi1000.jpg
Regards Andrew
Well. I can get the same amount of energy that of these wind turbines, but without neither wind nor blades. I only need someone with some capital.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat if I can get the same energy (and even more) than these giant turbines, without wind and without blades?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd all this with less than 50 (fifty) Watts.