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Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

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61–70 of 182 posts

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mean to insult your comment, but this is the first time I've heard someone say "think of the birds!" How many birds are the turbines killing and what kind of impact is it having on ecosystems?

https://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe... Hundreds of thousands, apparently

For comparison, cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds a year (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/outdo...)

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#62
post #56

how "stupid" would it be to turn all building roofs as solar surfaces and wind tunnels ?

What others said, plus the fact that most municipalities don't allow it. As a rule of thumb, the distance from a turbine to a permanent structure must be larger than the height of the turbine.

I meant tunnels not Mills though. Something flat.

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#64
post #27

So disappointing journalists never understand the difference between power and energy. The opening sentences make me cringe so much I don't even want to read the rest of the article > Last month the American wind industry hit a major milestone — 100 gigawatts of total installed capacity. That's enough electricity to power the state of California and New Jersey combined for one year.

This isn't just a journalist -- this is "the director of the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, a U.S. offshore wind energy policy and communications program based at the University of Delaware"!!

I can only hope that the insertion of "for one year" was the act of an editor, and that the author is as upset about it as we are.

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#65
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What others said, plus the fact that most municipalities don't allow it. As a rule of thumb, the distance from a turbine to a permanent structure must be larger than the height of the turbine.

I meant tunnels not Mills though. Something flat.

My bad, but I'm curious; how do you generate power in a wind tunnel?

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#66
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't removing energy from our over-energized climate system a good thing? I realize that this is a very simplistic view, but if I am wrong I would love to learn something.

You are not removing it, it is just converted to heat (in several steps).

Ok yeah, I guess the only way to remove it for now would be something like solar or wind powered carbon sequestration?

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rooftop solar costs 2x+ as much as utility scale.

Any hope of seeing costs go down ?

Probably not. Most of that cost is having a professional sort out the specifics of your particular installation, plus paying the dudes to scramble around on your roof and actually do the work (plus the associated liability).

And even once it's all done, you take an efficiency hit because no one's roof will be at the ideal angle the way panels installed at ground level can be.

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#68
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant tunnels not Mills though. Something flat.

My bad, but I'm curious; how do you generate power in a wind tunnel?

It's still fans but in arrays. Note that i'm no engineer, i just saw this somewhere and thought they'd fit nicely under Solar roofs.

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#69
post #15

By far the most wind turbines have been built on land and for good reason: it's much cheaper. As long as there is space/not too many people complaining it makes more sense to build on land. Not sure exactly but on land installed wind is probably ~10x the installed capacity offshore. However on land turbines are pretty much maxed out at about 7,5MW, due to logistical difficulties of getting larger blades, towers and n…

AIUI the next round of UK offshore auctions are expected to do better than onshore, along with being cheaper than already existing gas plants. That's based on the current state of the art 300m high 15MW turbines - and there's no sign scaling up is stopping yet.

Re: Offshore wind will be a $1T industry by 2040, but it's needed now

#70
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>How easy to maintain are these? The current lifespan of wind turbines is around 20 years (but 15 years is closer to reality). So ... not great.

Do you have some sources? All windfarms I know of are designed for at least 25 years. Not many have reached that age yet, so if they last is yet to be seen. The first offshore wind farm Vindeby was decommissioned in 2016 (after 25 years) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vindeby_Offshore_Wind_Farm In 2015 Yttre Stengrund ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yttre_Stengrund_offshore_wind_... ) was decommissioned after only 14…

Here you go[1]. 12-15 years

[1]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/windpower/9770...

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