Sunday, March 17, 2013

Are global wind power resource estimates overstated?


 The answer to the captioned question is “Yes”, probably overstated by a factor of 5x to 10x. This isn’t an issue for small, dispersed collections of turbines – but it is absolutely a big problem at the scale Germany is planning for offshore wind.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting data from figure 2 in the link.

Both UK and German onshore wind farms never start off much better than a 25% capacity (load) factor.

After 10 years the capacity factor plummets for the UK to 10% but not so much for the Germans 20%. Suggests the Germans are better at taking care of their equipment.

But even the Germans can't keep the offshore wind facilities from crapping out. These systems start at 40% capacity factor but are nearly worthless 10% in ten years, even with the meticulous German's TLC.

These data aren't speculation and aren't opinion. Makes us wonder why we don't all recognize industrial wind for what it is, modern day hucksters selling the modern equivalent of snake oil.