5 ms·
> The turbine will produce about three megawatts of energy on average which, when working at full capacity, is enough to power 2,400 U.S. homes for one month.
by ramchip 8y ago
> The turbine will produce about three megawatts of energy on average which, when working at full capacity, is enough to power 2,400 U.S. homes for one month.
The "for one month" makes no sense here, but if you drop it the math checks out.
- xyzzyz 8y agoAdditionally, it won’t work at full capacity all of the time. The capacity factors as seen in actual existing commercial installations usually range betweeen 40% and 60%, so the average power output here will be rather 1-1.7 MW instead of 3 MW
- dredmorbius 8y agoClarifying further: Megawatts are a unit of power. Think of the size of the engine in a car. Megawatt-hours are a unit of energy. Think of the size of a fuel tank. Both units are useful: if you run a 1 MW load (a synonym, mostly, for power) for an hour, you'll use one MWh of energy, and have to fuel or pay equivalently. But increasing the size of your gas tank won't make your car more powerful, and increasing the engine size won't let you drive further between fuel stops.[1] That serious information outlets still confuse the terms is a bit sad really. _______________________________ Notes: 1. Pedants, I love you, welcome to Costco. But I'm excluding second-order effects, which tend regardless to be in the opposite directions.
- cup-of-tea 8y agoOr three times that many homes in Europe. US power usage shouldn't be used as a benchmark.
- throwaway76543 8y agoWhere in Europe? There's a variance in the average consumption of over 400% depending on the weather. France uses much less energy than the US on average, but Sweden uses more. We see the same variance regionally within the US as well. Canadians use more energy per capita than folks in the US. Cold and hot states dominate energy consumption per capita. The US does have larger homes and more wealth and does tend to consume more energy per capita across similar environments -- but regional weather patterns create far, far larger differences in energy consumption than any other factor. We could just as easily say that Europe shouldn't be used as a benchmark as the weather is too nice, on average.
- amluto 8y agoIt’s a thing. The article also talks about water pipes, “which leaks enough drinking water a day to serve 15 million households”.
- Agathos 8y agoMaybe it's poorly made and the blades will fall off after a month?
- rini17 8y agoI expected some estimate when the turbine generates enough energy to make the concrete instead...perhaps I have too high expectations.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoFacts would spoil the narrative.
- Koshkin 8y agoActually, it's "megawatts of energy" that doesn't make sense; home per month, on the other hand, is a valid unit of power.
- Sharlin 8y agoYes, but "n homes for one month" is not home/month; it's home*month.
- konschubert 8y ago>home per month, on the other hand, is a valid unit of power. "1 Home” is already a unit of power. One home per month would be energy over time squared. :D
- Koshkin 8y agoYou are right! Silly me.