My son and I spotted two windmills this morning in front of Troy City Hall. Hopefully they're generating some cheap electricity for the City's buildings.
Maybe all the hot air from "our" city leaders can push that windmill a little Faster..but looking at that $500K solar house maintenance,,program..I bet the Troy has to hire outside help..to maintain the windmill. I hope it's FREE no expense to the City..No library,,but we have a shine-y windmill.
It is very unlikely that they are generating any significant amount of electricity, much less clean: 1) The average wind speed in troy is not high.
2) They are not tall enough - wind velocity increases with altitude, in addition the wind is going to be very turbulent that close to the ground with all those obstacles around.
3) they are verticle axis machines-their power stroke osillates and they have more rotational inertia then a horizontal axis turbine.
4) I believe they are grid tied. Coal provides the base load with gas turbines making up the difference between demand. When you add intermittant devices such as this it means the gas turbines have to accellerate/deccellerate faster and more often. Much like your car, the gas turbines operate inefficiently during these fast take offs and hard stops - increasing fuel consumption and CO2 production.
Many systems have online monitoring so there users may see how much power they are generating. The real question will the city be transparent and post this info or will it remain "secret" like the aloe terra house.
Maybe all the hot air from "our" city leaders can push that windmill a little Faster..but looking at that $500K solar house maintenance,,program..I bet the Troy has to hire outside help..to maintain the windmill.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's FREE no expense to the City..No library,,but we have a shine-y windmill.
It is very unlikely that they are generating any significant amount of electricity, much less clean:
ReplyDelete1) The average wind speed in troy is not high.
2) They are not tall enough - wind velocity increases with altitude, in addition the wind is going to be very turbulent that close to the ground with all those obstacles around.
3) they are verticle axis machines-their power stroke osillates and they have more rotational inertia then a horizontal axis turbine.
4) I believe they are grid tied. Coal provides the base load with gas turbines making up the difference between demand. When you add intermittant devices such as this it means the gas turbines have to accellerate/deccellerate faster and more often. Much like your car, the gas turbines operate inefficiently during these fast take offs and hard stops - increasing fuel consumption and CO2 production.
Many systems have online monitoring so there users may see how much power they are generating. The real question will the city be transparent and post this info or will it remain "secret" like the aloe terra house.