3 ms·

> I see these things failing all the time around me You do? Where?

• zdragnar 7y ago
  Pretty much anywhere with turbines installed between 1990 and 2000 or so. They don't work forever, and the tradeoff between durability and efficiency is often set to around a 25 year lifespan. In fact, if they were cheaper to build, it might make sense to design them with shorter lifespans to take better advantage of the improvements in technology faster.
• Rebelgecko 7y ago
  I see dead ones at the San Gorgonio wind farm all the time. I imagine the maintenance situation is even worse for offshore installations.
  • jerven 7y ago
    Are they dead/broken or market optimizing power delivery? Spinning a few down to nothing can be better for a farm total life time efficiency. You might make more money curtailing output because it is easy to turn off a wind turbine, compared to reacting with an inflexible baseload plant.
    • Rebelgecko 7y ago
      For many I can't tell the difference between off and broken, but some are clearly broken (missing blades, collapsed towers, etc). Supposedly a lot of the companies that were originally operating in the San Gorgonio pass went out of business, and their old windmills are being gradually replaced.