[ RadSafe ] LOBA Accidents -- Wind Turbine Failures Strike Again

[John Ahlquist]

Stewart,

In your last paragraph you do not allow for the wind stopping.  It doesn't 
matter what the installed capacity is at a wind farm if the wind stops and you 
can't store the previous energy.  5000 MW(e} of wind power is not necessarily 
equivalent to on 1000 MW(e) nuclear power plant.  The wind farms must be widely 
distributed for them to be base load.   In Germany several years ago, they had a 
real hot spell so the demand for electricity for air conditioning surged. 
However, accompanying the heat was a calm period and the wind farms were still. 
 i.e., you need multiple sources of generating capacity.

John Ahlquist

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Message: 6
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:41:23 -0400
From: Stewart Farber <SAFarber at optonline.net>
Subject: [ RadSafe ] LOBA Accidents -- Wind Turbine Failures Strike
    Again
To: "'The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing
    List'"    <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Message-ID: <op.vwvh69ic1wvd5d at --pc>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15"; Format="flowed";
    DelSp="yes"

Hi all,

Fun for a Friday afternoon.  Attached are a few links about an older  
fatal accident, and 2 recent windmill accidents a few months ago for those  
who are interested in alternate energy impacts. If not interested, please  
delete this email and all attachments. It's too hot for flaming. 
 .........................
....................
Of additional note, these two windmills cost about $1 million each  
[subsidized by the taxpayers to the tune of about $700,000 each -your tax  
dollars at use]. Each windmill  delivered only about 25% of the total  
kilowatt-hours promised by developers [before all 3 blades flew off from  
each windmill]. You could say that the developers proved to be blow-hards  
because the wind blew too soft. Although ignored in all news reports about  
new wind farms, the capacity factor is generally  18% to 25% for wind  
farms vs. about 90% ++ at today's nuclear plants. So about 3,700 MW[e] -  
5,000 MW[e] of wind farm installed peak capacity is needed to equal the  
average output of one 1,000 MW[e] nuclear power plant. Tends to affect the  
cost of  wind power generating capacity "slightly".


Stewart Farber, MSPH
Farber Medical Solutions, LLC
Bridgeport, CT 06604

203-441-8433