enthalpy

Saturday, February 05, 2011


With rolling blackouts affecting many Texas cities this week, it's painfully clear the state needs to take a look at the grid. First stop, wind power. Even though we know they won't generate enough electricity to pay for themselves before they suffer failure, there's always some concern with what happens when the wind stops blowing. You guessed it, they stop generating electricity. But with all the wind from the winter storms this week, these prairie turbines must be replete with electrons, right? Well no. Turns out they stop generating power when the wind blows too much, too.
Turbines capture the wind about 300 feet in the air, where there is less drag from the surface of Earth, so the speeds are even higher. Strong winds can cause the turbines, which normally thrive on the gusty Panhandle breezes, to shut down. Some are programmed to shut down automatically when winds reach a certain speed.
Sleep tight, Texas. Next time you're shivering in the dark, rest assured that hundreds of millions of your tax dollars were spent buying these huge windmills from some European country.

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