BF2S Forums Question for the Danes (re: Wind energy)

Look up Germany, they have a law that states the grow of windmills/year per Provence.
I work for a Firm that does design, inspection and stress analysis on windmills.
A windmill does not come cheap, the current profit operation is a min of 8 year, so you have to run for 8 years before making a profit.. this can vary by turbine tho.
Most turbines are connected to the big network, the European union subsides the energy delivery otherwise it would not be economically viable.

http://www.break.com/index/windmill-sel … ction.html

Kinda neat link. little scary, considering how big they are.

They seem pretty useful, But I hear that it takes a long time to make up for the energy cost to make them.

mtb0minime wrote:

RoosterCantrell wrote:

http://www.break.com/index/windmill-self-destruction.html

Kinda neat link. little scary, considering how big they are.

Whoa that's awesome! I'm so putting that in my class presentation!

It's pretty freaky, but I am almost thinking that it was a test run to see what happens, because I know people who live near them, and when it gets TOO windy they say that the blades lock down and stop moving.

Just letting you know.

It's "Wind Turbine" rather than Windmill" by the way, as a windmill is a mill, (e.g. a machine for grinding, crushing, or pulverising any solid substance,) powered by wind while a Wind Turbine is a turbine, (a rotary engine in which the kinetic energy of a moving fluid is converted into mechanical energy by causing a bladed rotor to rotate,) powered by wind.

Anyway:

mtb0minime you're in luck. My dad is a Senior Manager for Meridian Energy, specificly the Corporate Affairs manager. Meridian Energy is a New Zealand electricity company which specialises in renewable energy and is the first carbon neutral power company. Meridian in the past has mostly worked with hydro but at the moment new Wind Farm proposals are happening all the time and are being built all over the place. New Zealand is largly powered by renewable energy, the exceptions being a few Gas, Thermal and Coal powered plants, and as Hydro scemes are seen as projects which alter the environment too significantly Wind power is really taking hold, (if it weren't for the NIMBYs.)

Anyway if you want I can give you my dad's work E-mail address so you can ask him a few questions - his job is largely public and media relations so he IS the person to ask. University students send him questions all the time, he's usually happy to answer them, (some try to get him to do their whole projects for them, don't try it he's exceptionally good at seeing through this.)

Cool, just PM me when/if you want it.