10MW wind turbine debuts

This_person

Well-Known Member
A small town perhaps...

Very, very, very small town. Like, well under 10,000 people. St. Mary's County certainly uses far more than 10MW, not including the need for peaking power, or "reserve capability", etc.

10MW is more like a neighborhood than a town.
 

black dog

Free America
Very, very, very small town. Like, well under 10,000 people. St. Mary's County certainly uses far more than 10MW, not including the need for peaking power, or "reserve capability", etc.

10MW is more like a neighborhood than a town.

I live in a town of 5,000 a small town is a few hundred or less.
If the Wildcat wind farm about 8 miles from me that has 125 windmills producing nominal power: 200,000 kW.
If they each produced 10 MW it would be a different game in production and or less windmills are easier on the eyes and landscape.
 

This_person

Well-Known Member
I live in a town of 5,000 a small town is a few hundred or less.

:yay: My home town was 14,000 when I left, and is something over 30,000 now. I always considered my 14,000 home town to be a "small" town, but it is a matter of perspective.

My point was that a town like Green Bay would need around 25 of these. There's a pretty consistent wind there, so I think that might work for them.
If the Wildcat wind farm about 8 miles from me that has 125 windmills producing nominal power: 200,000 kW.
If they each produced 10 MW it would be a different game in production and or less windmills are easier on the eyes and landscape.

This only functions in a constant wind speed of at least 23 miles/hour, per the link. That's an off-shore kind of thing. I do not know how many acres per windmill would be required to keep one windmill from robbing wind from other windmills, but quick math says that your 125 windmills could be reduced to 20 windmills to get the same power, PROVIDED 23 miles/hour continuous wind.

The AP1000 nuke plant generates around 5 times the electricity (edit for clarity: 5X more than the 125 windmills you discussed) for more than twice the period provided by this windmill, will do it continuously regardless of the wind, takes up far less land-space to do it, is far less ugly and harmful to the surrounding ecosystem (ever see what windmills do to earthworms? They drive them away, which destroys the soil for a long distance around the windmill), and doesn't really cost a whole lot more to operate. The cost of nukes is the construction and decommissioning.

A Model T today works much of the time, getting someone from point A to point B faster than a horse could. Similarly, windmills can generate electricity. It is far from the best way to do it, even ecologically speaking, in the large quantities required of the 21st century.
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
wind power.jpg
 
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