Why Did We Wait So Long for Wind Power?

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-did-we-wait-so-long-for-wind

by chautumn • 2 years ago

28 10 2 years ago

yread• 2 years ago

Part 2 which is more about the economics and engineering is here https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-did-we-wait-so-lo...

and Part 3 about offshore here https://www.construction-physics.com/p/why-did-we-wait-so-lo...

Yeul• 2 years ago

A bunch of academic hippies were working on windmill power in the Netherlands in the 1970s. But with cheap and unlimited LNG it was considered a technical curiosity.

Smart people did predict that gas would eventually run out but by then the country was supposed to have a dozen nuclear reactors like Japan. Now we can't even build one- and it's not even because of the 40 billion € cost but because of bureaucracy and NIMBYism.

The best thing about wind turbines in the North Sea? Nobody lives there.

vivekd• 2 years ago

I remember an uproar about building a nuclear reactor here in Canada because of a predicted 27 billion dollar cost. 40 billion euros?!

If it's going to be like this then I think net 0 requires a different form of government or for private power generation. There is no reason for a nuclear reactor to cost more than 10 billion US.

grepfru_it• 2 years ago

Those hippies didn't consider the decommission process of wind turbines. Drove past several farms during my holiday and there were a staggering number of turbines that were either not turning or turning at a fraction of the speed of their peers. I do worry what we are going to do with all the failed gearboxes and blades :\

antisthenes• 2 years ago

The gearboxes are recyclable, the blades can be buried in a landfill or shredded into fine material to mix in with concrete.

It's really a non-issue compared to burning the remainder of fossil fuels (everything still buried).

snakeyjake• 2 years ago

I do worry what we are going to do with all the failed gearboxes and blades

There are three companies I'm aware of in the United States who have commercialized, and are, today, right now, recycling turbine blades.

Additionally, there are multiple startups in both the US and Europe who have developed more easily recyclable blades and those are starting to be deployed.

Blade lifecycle is a solvable problem.

The steel in the gearboxes is a problem that solves itself.

Why Did We Wait So Long for Wind Power?

Related Stories