Welcome to the world of tomorrow!
Lectricity being generated by wind! Real safe!!
On the way back from the last Indy 1500, Mr B noted that he was (appropriately) concerned about the trebuchet like action of the turbines flinging chunks of ice at roads. Next time you’re driving past one of these boondoggles, think about that.
16 comments Og | Uncategorized
Now that the turbines are operational on I-65, I fully expect that someone will be killed or injured next time we have icing conditions (or even better, freezing rain). I figure the throw of a chunk of ice is about 1750 feet if the blades are turning at 20 RPM (tip speed is about 160 mph. If the ice leaves the blade at a 45 degree angle to vertical, some ice can reach the highway. What happens when a 100 lb chunk of ice hits a car traveling at 60 MPH?
This is a blog. NO MATH PROBLEMS!!!
But Og, physics is your friend!
:P
Physics are my friend
Just watched the Punkin’ Chunkin’ in Delaware. The “centrifugals,” which most closely resemble these windmills, were making throws in the 1,500-2,000 ft range, if memory serves.
(BTW: Maybe, to emphasize the retro-ness of this technology, we should use the 19th century term for them and call them windmills, not turbines.)
M
Because a windmill implies milling, and these do none of that. They are airfoils that translate linear motion to rotary motion, hence, turbines
“This is a blog” + “Physics are my friend.” = “This is a crapblog”
Well, duh.
Well, we would be remiss to let your correction pass w/o special inspection. /TSA agent
Yebbut… Is not the term “mill” also used colloquially to refer to any rotary device?
IAC, the simile is not intended to be accurate. The word “windmill” brings to mind quaint and old-fashioned tropes such as Don Quixote tilting at giants, Hans Brinker and skating on the Dutch canals, wooden shoes, and other outdated notions — which is rather the point where wind power is concerned.
There’s a REASON we left it behind in age of steam, and people need to be reminded of that.
M
lol. Yep, an engine is often called a “mill” but it’s just a colloqualism. Tilting at windmills? yeah, plenty appropriate, and accurate, but its still a turbine.
Wind power is a legitimate thing, I think, on a micro scale, but on the scale with which it’s being jammed down our throats collectively, using OUR money, and in a net loss game, I think it’s more like tilting at clusterfucks.
“tilting at clusterfucks”
Dammit. Already named my blog ViolentIndifference. “Tilting at Clusterfucks” would have been a contender.
BTW you don’t have a ‘V’ in your blog list. ViolentIndifference could be your ‘V’.
Okay.
And just think. Nuclear plants take up far less space, don’t ugly up the view for miles and miles, and (most importantly) don’t throw ice a quarter of a mile.
And the same people that allow these rotating weapons of ice destruction to be built are scared to death that a little radioactive steam might escape from a nuke plant.
Turbines are clearly the work of a government that wants to limit zombie creation.
I’m surprised they don’t have de-icing equipment built into those blades. After all, the blade has its peculiar shape for a reason (unlike the old-timey windmills), and as the shape of the blade gets morphed away from ideal by the added ice, the efficiency of the machine, I’d think, would decrease considerably, never mind wear on the bearings as balance is now out of true. Ever have a ceiling fan that was about to pull itself out of the ceiling until you taped a penny in the right spot on one of the blades? Like that. This all, before even considering safety.
But I’m an idiot, not one of those degreed engineer types.
I drive by that site often, quite a few folks in the area didn’t want them at all. Personally, I despise them because 1) They can’t be dispatched because midwestern wind is not steady & predictable. 2) They don’t make baseload… modern nuke designs would be much better, along with reprocessing spent fuel rods (Thanks Dhimi Carter). 3) They don’t last. There are 2 Vestas next to this site that are always broken – I have been told they never pay for themselves in the utility calculations, it is all political and tax credits. 4) They are ugly, annoying and LOUD. The shadows thrown would drive me bonkers and their “minimal” noise is obnoxious. Their presence ruins a really neat glacial moraine landscape.
I’ll have to see if I know any property owners around one to go looking for ice shed by the blades.