Wind is Obsolete Technology?

This past week-end I have read news reports of what is described as a ‘failed’ experiment using obsolete technology. The comment concerned a political decision to scrap plans to build offshore wind turbine farms.

This is the first time I have heard wind power described as being obsolete technology.

Reading the article  in depth  I find the originator of the movement to  squash  wind turbines saying wind turbines is obsolete  and inefficient  power generation methods.

I am not sure  how  they managed to  calculate free wind  = electrical output  as being inefficient.. As compared to what?   Solar panels are said to be  at 21% - 23% efficient.

Engine driven generators are said to be 37% efficient. Digging into the subject I find   there is something called BETZ limit that says wind turbines have a theoretical maximum coefficient of 0.59 or 59% efficiency. 

Okay so it is not 100% but then again what is 100% efficient? 

Further ruminations got me thinking that in some locations wind power would come at too great a cost in relation to the return. 

Where I live we are sheltered by a deep valley carved by a river that shelters us from most prevailing winds. No amount of wind turbine capacity would serve to power my home because of the long periods of zero wind in between when a light breeze blows.

We also happen to live far enough north that at noon in the winter the sun is barely 30 degrees above the horizon.  That doesn’t produce any great amount of power.. Given the low sun angle those 23% efficient PV panels suddenly look very expensive per watt generated.

Micro hydro does not look feasible because there is no drop in the creek.

However; a number of other options are still possible. 

If it wasn’t for the fisheries & wildlife department, a water turbine that sits submerged in the creek would be workable for generating power.  The objection is that dam’s etc impeded fish migration. However an undershot water wheel that barely submerges more than 5” into the flowing water where the depth of water is a couple of feet would not impeded fish migration. Except;  the bureaucrats are not willing to even look at it.

We live in an area where logging was the mainstay industry. Sadly  the pine beetle has  killed off  thousands of acres  of  forest and  pretty much killed the industry as well..     

The devastation is so wide spread  logging companies  cannot  cut  down  these trees fast enough  to prevent  huge  amounts from rotting on the stump. Many local residents heat  with wood  because  dead pine trees are so abundantly  available for the cost of cutting  them down and hauling them away.

Something called a Stirling engine runs on heat from an external source. It is at present used to generate power either by focusing sunlight on the active heat collector or by burning petro-fuels to heat the heat collector. A European company builds  a home heat  system  that burns wood pellets  and heats the house while generating electricity  as well.

Unfortunately this company has no immediate plans to export such a stove to North America. An American  company  located  in the east  makes  Stirling engines but has no plans  to offer a small engine to the home power market. They say their focus is on military and space  satellite applications.

Although methane digesters  have been used for  many decades  including in Government  Department of Energy  pilot projects this technology  is largely unheard of  in the North American  domestic market.  Else where it is used extensively. When you go to any of the large engine manufacturers  you will find generator  sets  listed  for Biogas fuel and methane which is the fuel developed by methane digesters  These  generators are  sold  all over the world thus proving this is not a rare form of experimental form of energy creation.

Wood gasification is  yet another form of energy creation that is  widely known  and  has been demonstrated to power  anything from a food cooking stove to powering vehicles.

Although  ethanol  creation from corn has been denounced as a waste of fuel, the same  basic process  using suitable enzymes  to break down the feed stock  has been  demonstrated as being able to produce  ethanol for fuel  from  various biomass  that is normally dumped  into landfill sites as garbage.

The list of  previously invented and  developed  energy generating  devices  is  very long.

Yet most of these are not being used because the present generation of engineers rejects them for one reason or another. 

One oft heard reason being  “it’s not efficient”. 

.This one I have  problems with  because I have  difficulty  figuring out how something that runs on free fuel or  continuously running  water  can be calculated  as being  inefficient.

 Sounds more like someone inventing reasons to reject it by any excuse.

I grant you  there is  a capital cost  involved  in building the machine, but this is true  for any  method. Consider it takes a multi million dollar factory to produce solar cells. Even the manufacturers  declare in their  own specifications that their  solar panels  deliver efficiencies around the 21 – 23% range.

The much maligned  internal combustion engine is  said to be  37% efficient when powering a generator  at optimum load.  So why is solar considered better?  The answer being no exhaust pollution.  Well what about  wind turbines or Water  wheels?

My point in this blog  is merely to show there are many more options  available  when considering  power  sources  for a home  away from utility grid power..

~~  END  ~~

.