Windturbines: the whole truth.
VIII1. Offshore windfarms.
The promoters of the applications of windenergie like to outline the future image of huge offshore windfarms. Without mentioning one single technical problem they discuss gigantic offshore windfarms with installed power rates of 6,000 and even 8,000 MW. Applying the knowledge from the former chapters it will be interesting to weigh up whether these plans would be truly feasible.
Let us therefore first have a look at the two far more modest offshore windfarms West of Egmon aan Zee and West of IJmuiden. The first has been operative for a year now. Its total installed power, with 36 windturbines of 3 MW, is of 108 MW. The farm near IJmuiden will consist of 60 2 MW windturbines with a total installed power of 120 MW. The aggregate installed power will thus be 228 MW, and with an estimated production factor of 36 per cent the farms will produce effectively with 82 MW, generating 82/13,000= 0.0063 of 6.3 per mil of our Dutch electricity consumption. Periodically, these 96 windturbines will have to be visited for maintenance or repair. Suppose no more often than three times a year. That means 288 trips will have to be made to these windturbines with their nacelles about 100 meters above sealevel, with special ships, helicopters and specialized tecnicians. That seems to be a very difficult and costly job. (This judgement was confirmed by Peter de Wit, CEO of Shell Netherland, in an interview with the companies magazine Shell Venster of may/june 2008 in which he said about the offshore wind farm near Egmond aan Zee : " Our experience with this wind farm after a year of operation showed that indeed the exploration is more difficult than with an onshore wind farm. Especially the speedy repair after breakdowns is difficult and costly.. " In the future Shell will only direct its wind energy activities at onshore windfarms.)
As a result of the variations in wind force, in the most unfavourable circumstances, the input fed into our connected grid may vary from 228 MW to 0 MW. This can probably still be compensated for by adjustment of our plants, but is certainly most unpleasant if these sways occur fast.
When Prince Willem Alexander meant to officially inaugurate the farm at Egmon aan Zee, all wind mills stood pitifully still due to a three days calm. Hard luck.
But now a few considerations on those envisaged 6,000 and even 8,000 MW giga-windfarms. Let us just limit our scope to the 6,000 MW wind farm: if they consist of 3 MW windturbines, 2,000 of these will have to be placed on the North Sea. With very heavy foundations on the seabed. All the enclosures for the technical equipment must be completely sealed off against spraywater.
With three maintenance and repair visits a year, 6,000 trips will have to be made just to the windturbines, not to mention the thousands of electric cables on the sea floor and the dozens of electrical switching stations on high platforms in the sea. Enormous switching stations for medium voltage, and even bigger ones for 150 kV and 380 kV, enormous convertors for making DC from the 380 kV AC. high voltage. All these installations to be enclosed in enormous halls high above sealevel.
The aggregate power will vary from 6,000 MW to 0 MW when there is no wind. Given that all the Dutch plants together function with an average power of 13,000 MW, when the wind is very strong at sea more than half of our plants will have to be taken out of service. Let us make an estimation: all the plants near Amsterdam, Rotterdam, on the Maasvlakte and near Geertruidenberg will have to be interrupted. Then, suppose the storms weakens and it suddenly becomes wind still. Then, all these huge plants will suddenly, according to their possibilities, have to become operative. Only a fool will believe this can be done. And: no inventer of such an absurd plan will be able to explain to you, technically, how the electricity produced by 2,000 windturbines is going to be collected, transported to shore and connected from there to our 380 kV high voltage grid.
It makes no sense to fill many pages by relating the hundreds of technical and electro-technical problems that would have to be solved if this most unrealistic idea were to be put into practice. So let us just put it this way: it is a ridiculous and unworkable Baron-von-Münchhausen-story. And the 8,000 MW wind farm is even more unfeasable.
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