Have you got any of those big windmills near your house

ALL of the big windmills have brakes that stop the blades from turning when the wind gets too high.

The problems is where the brakes fail :/
 
Ant said:
ALL of the big windmills have brakes that stop the blades from turning when the wind gets too high.

The problems is where the brakes fail :/
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so when there is a chance of creating loads of power you get none

:bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang:
 
sportysnaps said:
so when there is a chance of creating loads of power you get none

:bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang::bang:
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more often then not theres either not enough or too much wind, to make them a relialable source. The current turbines will not offer an alternate to current conventional powerstations. Think the future could be in under water currentunits that are currently in devolopment.
 
Ford manage to supply power to their factory in Dagenham and a nearby college and business park with their two wind turbines and sell electricity to the National Grid.
 
nilagin said:
Ford manage to supply power to their factory in Dagenham and a nearby college and business park with their two wind turbines and sell electricity to the National Grid.
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i pass them windmills all the time on the a13 and sometimes they are turning when there is no wind..whats that all about:shrug:
 
STARRIDER said:
i pass them windmills all the time on the a13 and sometimes they are turning when there is no wind..whats that all about:shrug:
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It doesn't take alot of wind to make the turbines turn.

They don't make any noise either.
 
they are silent these wind turbines are.

it's the sound of the tips of the blade breaking the sound barrier (Believe it or not) that makes them loud.

Did a unit in university about renewable electricity sources :/
 
A good few years ago I got a call from a community group in the North West Highlands asking for help. They had set up a tv transmitter for their area and had powered it via a wind turbine. The company they bought it from had tested it in the arctic winter and reckoned it could stand winds to gale force umptyseven. It lasted about six weeks!
I think what they hadn't considered was wind in Scotland, while not constantly strong, does gust to very high speeds and can come from one side then the other then another in the space of seconds.
 
Regardless of just seeing the turbine spinning, they very rarely run at capicty.

Normally around 15-40% over the year (from memory) so a 1megawatt turbine over a year, meaning a thertical 8760megawatt hours max if running at 1megawatt turnbine would in reality produce 3504megawatt hours for an average year.

The compare that to say Cottam coal power station of 2,000megawatt turbine, (again from memory) you'd need what 5,000 wind turbines to start matching it, where you going to build all these wind turbines, being in mind we do not currently produce enough power in this country already and have to import it from France.
 
Ant said:
they are silent these wind turbines are.

it's the sound of the tips of the blade breaking the sound barrier (Believe it or not) that makes them loud.

Did a unit in university about renewable electricity sources :/
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They are NOT silent! Stand anywhere near them and you can hear the hum. Stand on a piece of solid ground near them (like a road or a pad of concrete) and you can feel them humming.
 
Nod said:
They are NOT silent! Stand anywhere near them and you can hear the hum. Stand on a piece of solid ground near them (like a road or a pad of concrete) and you can feel them humming.
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Depends on the actually turbine used, there are 2 main types, one needs an electrical motor to help it start spining due to torque loads, other spins purely by itself.
 
The farms I've visited have all been moving under wind power rather than being driven, including 2 farms in Cornwall and a couple in Crete. One of the Cornish ones was a while ago (have revisited recently and the turbines still hum!) and the other was more recent.

FTR, I'm all for alternative energy sources but can see that none of them are anywhere near perfect.
 
Nod said:
They are NOT silent! Stand anywhere near them and you can hear the hum. Stand on a piece of solid ground near them (like a road or a pad of concrete) and you can feel them humming.
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I've stood at the base of one of the Ford turbines and it doesn't make any noise.
 
Nod said:
The farms I've visited have all been moving under wind power rather than being driven, including 2 farms in Cornwall and a couple in Crete. One of the Cornish ones was a while ago (have revisited recently and the turbines still hum!) and the other was more recent.

FTR, I'm all for alternative energy sources but can see that none of them are anywhere near perfect.
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Not sure if you call tell the difference between the two by looking i dont know quite enough about them to spot the different types, but i was under the impression the Cornish where motor driven start, the motor is only used to fire them up, once turning the electrical motors are turned of if you like.

I am all for renewables, but there is nothing stable enough yet, or effecient enough to fully replace fosil fuels yet. The major thing is we have a few major generators nearing the shelf life and will create a huge void, if we dont start buidling a new station soon then we will not have anywhere enough generation for demarnd in this country within 10years. But thats a seperate thread really.
 
I remember we received a letter from the council (I think) about their plan to erect a windmill or two here in Milton Keynes near the Hospital.
 
STARRIDER said:
i pass them windmills all the time on the a13 and sometimes they are turning when there is no wind..whats that all about:shrug:
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They have big motors in them to turn them, and they are powered by small coal-fired power stations in the base of each one..........
 
:lol:
 
They're trying to build a farm of these near where I live, but the locals aren't too happy at all. It seems smog spewing tractors, horse crap on the roads and run down delapidated farm buildings are fine, but wind turbines aren't. The silly thing is that hey say they'd produce easily enough energy to power the whole of the isle of Purbeck at the very least (not and island really, but that's it's name).

Purbeck Map
 
Got to ask though - why were they filming it in the 1st place? And what are the chances of filming it when it goes bang?

It's more likely in my mind to be an official "test" of what happens when the internal brake fails...
 
I think they were filming because it was running away with itself....
 
Engineers were called to the scene because the feathering action failed on the blades, it reached overspeed condition, they retired to a safe distance leaving their van underneath it, which nearly gets flattened by the generator. Thats why it was being filmed i believe. You can still see the transit at the bottom ;) Its not a brake as such, but they turn the blades to a position where the wind cant drive them round, like most modern turbojet planes can.
 
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