Re: Food for Thought--Seaward Wind Farms
- From: "Tom - Chicago" <tomat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 15:02:17 GMT
Like the Kennedy family - and other wealthy residents of Martha's Vineyard
and Nantucket - I am all for renewable energy as long as it has no impact on
me or anything I like to do.
Tom - Chicago
"Bob A." <noSpamHere@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:FfSdnaopONMXRfrZRVn-ug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm not a wind engineer. But I've done some looking around the internet
for
studies on the wake effect of wind turbines. The question is should we
windsurfers be at all concerned about getting less wind downwind of a wind
turbine farm? I do believe the continued unrestrained burning of fossil
fuels may be changing the whole Earth's climate which could really wreak
havoc on weather patterns (and sailing time!), and I'm a believer in
looking
at alternative energy sources. But from a windsurfer's viewpoint I'd hate
to
have a big new alternative energy wind farm reduce my sailing time. So,
just
for grins here are a couple of points I've come up with from one of the
(very dense reading) wind turbine farm studies.
1. The wind turbine designers have been assuming that wind turbine wakes
persist for 5 turbine row spacings, when turbine rows are spaced at about
6D apart. (D=diameter of blades...100m (328 feet) might be a
representative
blade diameter for this discussion). And a new (2004) study from the
Netherlands suggests that the wake may actually be 10 turbine row spacings
or more (at hub height). This equates to 60D=3.7 miles of wake effect. See
p. 2 of linked study for the summary:
http://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2004/c04033.pdf
Granted, this wake persistence was for hub height, 200 feet or so above
the
water, and will be somewhat less at the water's surface.
2. The ability of a wind turbine farm to mix the boundary layer above the
sea surface might cause clouds to form in certain conditions of humidity
and
temperature. (See p. 25 of the above link.). If those clouds float over
your
favorite beach they could diminish thermal sea breeze potential for that
micro climate.
So perhaps there may be micro climatic effects due to large wind farms
offshore. Maybe 10 miles offshore is far enough to not worry but what
about
5 miles offshore? (The proposed Cape Cod wind farm is 4.7 miles from Point
Gammon, and 6.5 miles from Kalmus Beach.) How big could the effect be? I
don't know. I only know that the best wind sites are so good because of
local thermal sea breeze effects coupling with the larger scale synoptic
wind flow, and a good fetch to windward. Mess with the local thermal or
the
fetch and what results could be different than we've been accustomed to.
Anyone want to donate their favorite sailing beach to find out ;-) Or
anyone
have any experience or thoughts?
--Bob A.
<moreforce4@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1147404749.395060.9250@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"There's nobody there to look at it."
except windsurfers and birders. Hope that wont mess up the sailing
venues. Taking energy out of the wind has got to leave less energy
behind for windsurfers, or is it too small to measure. Any wind energy
engineer rec dotters?
.
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