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About maintenance of wind turbines: but when you compare the actual costs of O&M on wind turbines they are actually still pretty cheap compared to traditional e

by olau 11y ago

About maintenance of wind turbines: but when you compare the actual costs of O&M on wind turbines they are actually still pretty cheap compared to traditional energy sources, and it will likely get cheaper as the tech matures and common problems are addressed through improved manufacturing and better tools. But I agree that for places on earth close enough to the equator to have plentiful solar irradiance, also in the winter, solar looks like it is going to win hands down.

startupfounder 11y ago
> it will likely get cheaper as the tech matures and common problems are addressed through improved manufacturing and better tools. Yes! They are very cheap compared to coal fired power plants. During University I helped prepare one of the first wind turbines (call the wind furnace[0]) ever built to be shipped to the Smithsonian. This initial prototype turbine was built in 1972. Now 43 years later we have massive adoption of the technology and we are still ironing out the bugs. Big O&M cost are blade repair, gearbox and generator swapout and yes they are getting cheaper, but most of the these costs are the cost of the crane coming in. Modern turbines are fairly new to the market and we are still collecting data on how the components last over time. Most manufacturers, Siemens, GE, Gamesa, etc provide a 3-5 year warranty. Their incentive is to produce as many cheap components as possible that last the 3-5 years so they don't have to replace the parts under warranty. Wind turbines are very complex feats of engineering, solar panels on the other hand are simpler to make than sheetrock and as we scale that technology and come up with creative financing options that guarantee savings market penetration is going to be even greater than wind even in regions far away from the equatorial region. creative finance is the key to clean energy scale and adoption, not technology. [0] http://www.umass.edu/windenergy/about/history/furnace http://www.umass.edu/windenergy/about/history/furnace

by olau 11y ago

startupfounder 11y ago

> it will likely get cheaper as the tech matures and common problems are addressed through improved manufacturing and better tools. Yes! They are very cheap compared to coal fired power plants. During University I helped prepare one of the first wind turbines (call the wind furnace[0]) ever built to be shipped to the Smithsonian. This initial prototype turbine was built in 1972. Now 43 years later we have massive adoption of the technology and we are still ironing out the bugs. Big O&M cost are blade repair, gearbox and generator swapout and yes they are getting cheaper, but most of the these costs are the cost of the crane coming in. Modern turbines are fairly new to the market and we are still collecting data on how the components last over time. Most manufacturers, Siemens, GE, Gamesa, etc provide a 3-5 year warranty. Their incentive is to produce as many cheap components as possible that last the 3-5 years so they don't have to replace the parts under warranty. Wind turbines are very complex feats of engineering, solar panels on the other hand are simpler to make than sheetrock and as we scale that technology and come up with creative financing options that guarantee savings market penetration is going to be even greater than wind even in regions far away from the equatorial region. creative finance is the key to clean energy scale and adoption, not technology. [0] http://www.umass.edu/windenergy/about/history/furnace http://www.umass.edu/windenergy/about/history/furnace