Wind farms are wearing out far more rapidly than previously thought, making them more expensive as a result.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/29/wind-farm-turbines-wear-soon...

"...The report’s author, Prof Gordon Hughes, an economist at Edinburgh University and a former energy adviser to the World Bank, discovered that the “load factor” — the efficiency rating of a turbine based on the percentage of electricity it actually produces compared with its theoretical maximum — is reduced from 24 per cent in the first 12 months of operation to just 11 per cent after 15 years.

The decline in the output of offshore wind farms, based on a study of Danish wind farms, appears even more dramatic. The load factor for turbines built on platforms in the sea is reduced from 39 per cent to 15 per cent after 10 years..."

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Comment by Penny Gray on December 30, 2018 at 5:11pm

another interesting comment from the same person who commented below:


Mark:

Interesting information. What’s involved in a gearbox rebuild? Does the whole nacelle have to be craned down to ground level, or can it be rebuilt in place?


  • Mark

    H any machinery to remove the gearbox. The input low speed shaft is hollow and mounted directly on the wind turbine shaft. It is retained by a B-Lock compression disk or equivalent. Pretty standard long shaft coupling to the generator shaft at the high speed end. Remove the high speed coupling. Loosen the B-Lock. Remove the caps to the pin retaining bases. Slide the gear box off the low speed coupling. The box weighs 50,000 to 80,000 pounds. Big crane used to swap out a rebuilt box. When you pass a wind farm and see turbines not spinning they are probably broken. Since I rarely see service cranes I suspect they do several at a time. I’ve not been involved in the field work.

    Gear box damage can be failed bearings, broken teeth all the way to the housing broken to pieces. Some is rebuildable and some is scrap iron. The rebuild is new gears, bearings. Careful assembly with progressive load testing, oil analysis, cooler testing, vibration analysis. Final run in to burnish the gear teeth. Open port inspections. No guarantees. Some facilities are well run. Some are good ole’ boys with wrenches. All rely on subsidies and tax discounts. None of these facilities are built before the various support funding is lined up.


Comment by John F. Hussey on December 29, 2018 at 6:47pm

"...The rules typically do not require that the devices are working to claim credits. The amortized cost is assessed to the rate payers bills even if the turbines are broken. The power sellers make more money when the things are broken. There have been massive subsidies in cash and tax rebates as well..."

Comment by John F. Hussey on December 29, 2018 at 6:25pm

Interesting comment I found: "...

Down stream turbulence puts very high impact type stresses on the machines in the wind shadow. On water, (sailing) the wind shadow is 300 times the height of the disturbance. This is not unlike trailing vortexes from landing aircraft. Also, wind speed is less at the ground than at the top of the blade pass. This results in more oscillating input.

I designed many dynamometer test and break in facilities for the gear boxes used to speed up the input from the primary shaft. The gear box is the Achilles Heal of these things. They are under designed with low service factors like aircraft but are not maintained with the same vigor. They are designed to be cheap. The typical design has the main shaft (16 to 30 inches diameter) supported on a large, self aligning, radial/thrust bearing. The extension of this shaft has the low speed input to the gearbox rigidly mounted on it so the gear box is shaft mounted. The large bearings of the low speed input and the case of the gearbox then take all of the side loads resulting from the turbine blades. Two large pins in the extreme extent on opposite sides of the case are mounted in rubber lined bases. They react the torque and side loads. Speed up ratio increases the typical 14 to 20 rpm turbine to synchronous speed for the generator. Typical gear boxes have a planetary low speed input followed by two stages of helical gear speed up.

Mean time to failure of the gear box varies with maintenance. A few years ago, this was 6 to 18 months. I doubt it has improved much. Rebuild costs are in the hundreds of thousands each. A projected 30 years life is disengenuously stupid and known to be false. One needs to understand the money metrics. Legislation typically requires an installed base of some percentage renewables. Bargain basement low bid turbines are the lowest per rated output. The rules typically do not require that the devices are working to claim credits. The amortized cost is assessed to the rate payers bills even if the turbines are broken. The power sellers make more money when the things are broken. There have been massive subsidies in cash and tax rebates as well..."

 

Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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