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Does anyone know how many days are required to cover the energy required to produce one turbine?

mariopt 11y ago
I don't think this is relevant honestly. ( I'm assuming you want to compare the costs with other energy sources ) This reminds the question about How much energy are we spending today to build an electric/hybrid card versus a petrol one? (By comparing the factory emissions for example) Currently petrol cars are cheaper to produce because of the decades of investment, usually no one has in consideration in the equation, but on the long run eco tech wins the race. We should also expect new discoveries in Material Engineering that would help to reduce the cost and/or improve the efficiency. I don't think it's a fair to compare the cost of producing versus the cost of petrol solutions until the planet's crust isn't a source of energy.
- ytdht 11y ago
  it is probably relevant if you include the maintenance costs, which are probably very low for a wind turbine.
- bottled_poe 11y ago
  Depending on the answer to my question, it is totally relevant. > but on the long run eco tech wins the race Fine, but if some cleaner alternative is developed over the carbon repayment period, we could in fact be better off sticking with the current technology until then.
  - gonvaled 11y ago
    You can not make the switch in a hurry.
- hueving 11y ago
  The comparison to cars isn't relevant because cars aren't expected to produce energy. If a wind turbine couldn't cover it's own energy costs, the entire thing would have been a complete loss. It would mean they are just an inefficient way to convert fossil fuels into energy.
static_noise 11y ago
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140616093317.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140616093317.ht... says "a wind turbine with a working life of 20 years will offer a net benefit within five to eight months of being brought online" that's 150 to 240 days with a lifetime of 7300 days.
macmac 11y ago
There is a lot of variation (depending on size/age/location etc of the turbine) in the EROI (output/input) for wind, but the consensus appears to be approx 20. One source is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_inve...

I don't think this is relevant honestly. ( I'm assuming you want to compare the costs with other energy sources ) This reminds the question about How much energy are we spending today to build an electric/hybrid card versus a petrol one? (By comparing the factory emissions for example) Currently petrol cars are cheaper to produce because of the decades of investment, usually no one has in consideration in the equation, but on the long run eco tech wins the race. We should also expect new discoveries in Material Engineering that would help to reduce the cost and/or improve the efficiency. I don't think it's a fair to compare the cost of producing versus the cost of petrol solutions until the planet's crust isn't a source of energy.

ytdht 11y ago
it is probably relevant if you include the maintenance costs, which are probably very low for a wind turbine.
bottled_poe 11y ago
Depending on the answer to my question, it is totally relevant. > but on the long run eco tech wins the race Fine, but if some cleaner alternative is developed over the carbon repayment period, we could in fact be better off sticking with the current technology until then.
- gonvaled 11y ago
  You can not make the switch in a hurry.
hueving 11y ago
The comparison to cars isn't relevant because cars aren't expected to produce energy. If a wind turbine couldn't cover it's own energy costs, the entire thing would have been a complete loss. It would mean they are just an inefficient way to convert fossil fuels into energy.

static_noise 11y ago

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140616093317.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140616093317.ht... says "a wind turbine with a working life of 20 years will offer a net benefit within five to eight months of being brought online" that's 150 to 240 days with a lifetime of 7300 days.

macmac 11y ago

There is a lot of variation (depending on size/age/location etc of the turbine) in the EROI (output/input) for wind, but the consensus appears to be approx 20. One source is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_invested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_returned_on_energy_inve...