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There has been significant windmill failures recently. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-23/wind-turbine-collapses-punctuate-green-power-growing-

There has been significant windmill failures recently. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-23/wind-turbine-collapses-punctuate-green-power-growing-pains https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-23/wind-turb... As these things age they are going to affect grid performance and endanger anyone below them. These aren't 'growing plans' they are major longevity, reliability and credibility issues. 'Cheaper' is not much use if they're not reliable and have a short life span... 'There’s no publicly available industrywide data on turbine failures, making it tough to paint a complete picture of changes in their performance over time. (why not? The rest of the energy industry is very over regulated and performance data driven) But Vestas and GE have said the shares of their machines in the field that are unable to produce power are elevated, even if it’s still a small proportion of their installed fleets.' Separately, the sooner we stop burning biomass wood and calling it 'green energy' the better.

jl6 4y ago
> endanger anyone below them That’s a lot better than coal plants which endanger everyone, everywhere.
- olivermarks 4y ago
  I prefer efficient energy reliability over burning wood and pretending short life span windmills are producing ever more electricity. We'll get there eventually with small nuclear reactors but this is an unfortunate 'green' marketing and public relations driven period in energy history with a lot of sleight of hand and snake oil.. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nrc-certifies-first-us-small-modular-reactor-design https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nrc-certifies-first-us-sm...
  - ttyprintk 4y ago
    But you could see how others are equally offended that running a coal plant is currently glancingly profitable due to distortions by local regulation and political connectedness; costs passed on to me and you. Coal being the largest source of atmospheric mercury, which has no safe concentration, it’s unfortunate nuclear has the reputation of higher risk.
MrMan 4y ago
[flagged]
hotpotamus 4y ago
Should I be worried as I drive through the windmill fields in the panhandle of Texas as I do once in awhile? I'm surprised to learn that after centuries of development, windmills are still so poorly engineered.
- olivermarks 4y ago
  I was thinking the same about California's Altamont pass which has a lot of elderly windmills that used to chop up a lot of birds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_wind_farm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_wind_farm

jl6 4y ago

> endanger anyone below them That’s a lot better than coal plants which endanger everyone, everywhere.

olivermarks 4y ago
I prefer efficient energy reliability over burning wood and pretending short life span windmills are producing ever more electricity. We'll get there eventually with small nuclear reactors but this is an unfortunate 'green' marketing and public relations driven period in energy history with a lot of sleight of hand and snake oil.. https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nrc-certifies-first-us-small-modular-reactor-design https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nrc-certifies-first-us-sm...
- ttyprintk 4y ago
  But you could see how others are equally offended that running a coal plant is currently glancingly profitable due to distortions by local regulation and political connectedness; costs passed on to me and you. Coal being the largest source of atmospheric mercury, which has no safe concentration, it’s unfortunate nuclear has the reputation of higher risk.

MrMan 4y ago

[flagged]

hotpotamus 4y ago

Should I be worried as I drive through the windmill fields in the panhandle of Texas as I do once in awhile? I'm surprised to learn that after centuries of development, windmills are still so poorly engineered.

olivermarks 4y ago
I was thinking the same about California's Altamont pass which has a lot of elderly windmills that used to chop up a lot of birds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_wind_farm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Pass_wind_farm