Wind Turbines - technology for all our futures
[courtesy Brand South Africa]
We've come a long way from using wind to grind grain or to pull water from a well. These massive wind turbines now in use to generate many kilowatts of power to the masses. This power is not only clean and ongoing (apparently the cleanest form of renewable energy), but the equipment used to generate the electricity is impressive and in my humble opinion, quite beautiful.
You cannot imagine the scale of these huge technological marvels. The picture above is of my daughter (16 years of age), standing in the blade of one of the propellers. It is simply massive! And the edge of the blades on the largest of the turbines can spin at a speed of 180mph (289kmh)!!
I am sure that some people will not find the huge turbines appealing, and unfortunately they are known to kill bird life. However the number of birds killed is not even as high as those killed by feral cats/dogs (Wikipedia).
I also saw that there were turbines with 1 or 2 propellers, but those I didn't like the look of....just looked strange and unfinished.
With all the political pushing to have nuclear power stations built in South Africa, and the climate here being perfect for alternative power solutions such as wind or solar power, I truly hope the powers that be make use of their influence, and look to this sort of solution going forward.
Coming to you from a dry and windy Western Cape, South Africa
If private industry takes it seriously and builds huge windmill farms (Port Elizabeth coastal area is also a good windy area), the government will lose the incentive for building nuclear power plants (sorry, only lose part of it, the don't lose what they pocket). Okay, a no-winner, sorry.
Yes that's the problem isn't it....whats good for the people, or whats good for the pockets of the decision makers.
Wind energy is good to collect but in order to power our future society we're going to need something that has a much higher energy output and something that is more reliable.
Nuclear energy it's capable of producing vast quantities of electricity whenever we call for it. Wind energy will never be able to catch up nor keep up with the rate at which we are increasing our energy consumption. The future will be nuclear.
I disagree....there is a massive cost to the mining of nuclear material in order to run those stations. I realize that the cost of the actual raw material for the turbines is high too, but its not an ongoing cost to pockets and environment. And a wind farm can produce many, many GW of power quite predicatively. I have one that is not too far from me and there is almost never a time where they are not active
It's true that uranium fuel costs about as much as platinum metal. But in advanced nuclear reactors we are capable of burning thorium instead of uranium which we dispose of as a byproduct at almost every mine because it is so common and we have no good uses for it yet.
Would love to see a domestic Wind Turbine industry get up and running in South Africa to make this a reality. Unfortunately the coal industry may use political leverage to hamper these efforts...
I do think that Wind and Solar could be key in setting up desalinization plants to purify seawater. Cape Town is at risk of running out of fresh water, so they'll need to put serious consideration into solutions. Powering the solution is one component they simply can't ignore.
You know I read a long time ago of a town that was helped by government to install solar and wind power systems personally. This private 'power grid' was then pushed onto the national power grid during the hours it was not being used. For example, while the people were out at work, all the power that was collected was pushed onto the grid, then when they needed the power from the national grid, it was taken with the power credit offset against the cost. Sound like a great idea.....I would buy into something like that for sure!
Use the air,use water,use sun to create energy....save our planet!
Exactly....no need for destructive methods when you have all you need in abundance. But abundant energy isn't making someone money....so they don't chase it