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Mijolnir•

It is estimated that it has produced 2.5 gigawatt-hours of electricity since the blades began turning at the start of October.

But but but... Turbines are inefficient! Some bloke in the pub told me he read it in the Daily Torygraph, so it must be true!

edit: corrected energy definition.

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phys1cs•

It is estimated that it has produced 2.5 gigawatts of electricity since the blades began turning at the start of October.

What does this even mean? A continuous output of 2.5GW since the start of October? A maximum output of 2.5GW? Or maybe (more likely, given that these are wind turbines and not nuclear reactors) that the wind farm has produced 2.5 gigawatt-hours over the month, which works out at an average of about 3.5MW, which isn't great. A large wind turbine can generate a maximum of about 5MW and a good capacity factor in the UK would be around 35%, so this wind farm produced about half as much energy as might be expected from an 'efficient' wind farm - obviously, one month (and the first one at that) is not representative of overall performance, but this is by no means an indication of efficiency.

I'm sure it was just lazy editing, but mistakes like this are misleading, and generally unhelpful. For comparison, you'd need about 600 of these wind farms to equal Didcot power station, a 2 gigawatt plant.

2
InactiveUser•

What does this even mean? A continuous output of 2.5GW since the start of October? A maximum output of 2.5GW? Or maybe (more likely, given that these are wind turbines and not nuclear reactors) that the wind farm has produced 2.5 gigawatt-hours over the month, which works out at an average of about 3.5MW, which isn't great.

Its producing energy for free so who gives a shit! Stick em in the ground wherever you can, whenever you can and distribute the energy far and wide. Free shit! Go for it!

8
phys1cs•

£1.8 Million per turbine is the best kind of free there is...

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InactiveUser•

Yeah but its energy is produced for free ok? Grumble grumble ...

4
[deleted]•

It means that the turbines have produced that much power, it total, so far.

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IronEngineer•

You missed his point. GW is not a measure of energy, it is a measure of power. It is nonsensical to say a wind turbine can output 2.5 GW. A humungous nuclear power plant can't do that. Big plants tend to put out around or less than 500 MW. More likely, he meant 2.5 GW-hours. Which is actually a far less impressive number if that is actually how much energy it has harnessed since put into operation.

3
ferdinand•

The specs for this wind farm give a capacity of 2 MW per turbine, or 8 MW total, providing power for about 5000 homes. Of course, the wind farm is not designed to replace a large power plant.

5
phys1cs•

Ah, OK... should have done more research. For an 8MW wind farm in October, I should think this is about in line with expectations.

2
Mijolnir•

Didcot you say? I believe that is now closed... I know the main buyer for RWE, and he told me they were running Didcot at a loss for a long time.

Thanks for the input on the turbines. My comment was facetious, as I get sick of the renewable naysayers. It would be interesting to know what output the turbines are.

4
phys1cs•

I was under the impression that the operation of Didcot A had been restricted (and it'll have to close by 2016?) but Didcot B is still going strong.

1
Mijolnir•

Maybe its Didcot A that they shut down. I know that RWE are putting in a massive dedicated Biomass plant somewhere on the east coast to replace Didcot, and have built a 3/4 million tonne Pellet plant in the eastern US to fuel it.

1
cjbest•

Someone needs to send this to Ontario newspapers.

4
gabefair•

I knew they had to have been lying since the start. They are no louder than a distant push lawn mower

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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Sonorama21•

There's no downvote button. Now that I would downvote this.

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Sonorama21•

Not* that I would downvote this

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42harryb•

I live about a mile from these turbines, and it's amazing what reasons people have to not have wind turbines near them. Personally I love them, I think they're beautiful in there own way.

1