Live data from Hacker News

The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

iflscience.com

21–30 of 178 posts

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#21
Fascinating article. Looks encouraging. The size of the turbine and the capacity claimed is staggering. Is anyone aware of any materials that explainn how one distributes turbines over a farm to maximize yield? Can a tribune of this scale alter localized flow to require specific distribution patterns?

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#22
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they do break the sound barrier, that's also when the efficiency drops iirc. So I guess they'll switch it to a heavier load or RPM, or apply the brakes? Not sure how that works for a wind turbine

I presume the pitch is adjustable, so unless the mechanism fails you can just relax the pitch like pointing a sailboat directly into the wind to depower the sails.

The mechanism is designed (or at least should be designed) so that if anything breaks the blades rotate to the no power position. There is a lot of engineering and redundancy that i'm only partially aware of.

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#23
post #5

123 meter blades, that’s insane. This means the tip of the blade travels 772 meters in a single rotation. The speed of sound is 340 meters per second, meaning if it travels more than 0.44 rotations in a second, the tips of the blades are breaking the sound barrier.

Do you transport something like this in pieces, or as a single blade?

The blade is usually manufactured as a single fiberglass piece. With how big this thing is I imagine it's manufactured somewhere directly at the shore, and just lifted onto a boat directly from the factory.

The base is segments (shaped like calamari rings), which are big but usually can be transported by road, but the big ones probably can't pass under bridges.

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#24
post #8
post #5

123 meter blades, that’s insane. This means the tip of the blade travels 772 meters in a single rotation. The speed of sound is 340 meters per second, meaning if it travels more than 0.44 rotations in a second, the tips of the blades are breaking the sound barrier.

That is crazy, but, on the other hand, seeing this rotate faster than once every two seconds would be insanely fast.

We just need to hook it up to a flux capacitor and the next typhoon will give us time travel.

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#25

I wonder what paint job would best prevent birds from being destroyed by this. It looks like sometimes one blade is painted black for this purpose. How do bird deaths from wind turbines compare to other manmade objects?

Insignificant on many levels. If we should care for that we should stop all fossil fuel consumption right now, stop eating meat, and most importantly, stop putting glass windows into our cute buildings.

Why are these questions always in wind turbine posts before anything els?

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#26
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Birds won't be happy, unfortunately. Yet, better than wrecking Earth's cycles by pumping to much garbage in the atmosphere like we do today.

Not trying to pick a fight but just posting because I hear this often from my friends, re birds being happy. The choice, if between coal-fired plants and windmills should be pretty obvious to birds. Sure we may not see them getting splashed to bits with coal-fired plants but they are silently getting ill/dying over time.

So are people, yet we are afraid of nuclear power…

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#27

I wonder what paint job would best prevent birds from being destroyed by this. It looks like sometimes one blade is painted black for this purpose. How do bird deaths from wind turbines compare to other manmade objects?

Insignificant on many levels. If we should care for that we should stop all fossil fuel consumption right now, stop eating meat, and most importantly, stop putting glass windows into our cute buildings. Why are these questions always in wind turbine posts before anything els?

Cos some people care about birds?

How does eating meat factor into this?

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#28
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insignificant on many levels. If we should care for that we should stop all fossil fuel consumption right now, stop eating meat, and most importantly, stop putting glass windows into our cute buildings. Why are these questions always in wind turbine posts before anything els?

Cos some people care about birds? How does eating meat factor into this?

Because ostensibly global warming and climate change is of far more existential threat than localized turbines. Wind power could possibly save all birds, at the cost of some birds. It’s similar to when a self driving car gets into an accident - all hand wringing and no looking at broader statistics.

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#29

I wonder what paint job would best prevent birds from being destroyed by this. It looks like sometimes one blade is painted black for this purpose. How do bird deaths from wind turbines compare to other manmade objects?

Insignificant on many levels. If we should care for that we should stop all fossil fuel consumption right now, stop eating meat, and most importantly, stop putting glass windows into our cute buildings. Why are these questions always in wind turbine posts before anything els?

[dead]

Re: The world’s largest wind turbine has been switched on

#30
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to pick a fight but just posting because I hear this often from my friends, re birds being happy. The choice, if between coal-fired plants and windmills should be pretty obvious to birds. Sure we may not see them getting splashed to bits with coal-fired plants but they are silently getting ill/dying over time.

So are people, yet we are afraid of nuclear power…

Bird death from turbines small-scale and highly predictable. Deaths from nuclear can range from zero to regional catastrophe and it's basically impossible to predict when it'll happen and how bad it'll be.

I'm not anti-nuclear, but the risk profile is SO different from wind.

Post reply on HN