Posted on 09/14/2014 2:44:47 PM PDT by dennisw
Germanys flagship Bard 1 offshore wind farm has been described as a faulty total system as technical problems continue to plague the project, casting major doubts on the feasibility of large scale offshore projects.
The wind farm was officially turned on in August last year but was shut down again almost immediately due to technical difficulties that have still not been resolved and now lawyers are getting involved.
The wind farm comprises 80 5MW turbines situated 100 km off the north German coastline. The difficulty facing engineers is how to get the electricity generated back to shore. So far, every attempt to turn on the turbines has resulted in overloaded and gently smouldering offshore converter stations.
Built at a cost of hundreds of millions and costing between 1 and 2 million a day to service, the project is estimated to have cost 340 million in lost power generation over the last year alone. And if the problems with the technology are deemed not to be the fault of the operator, German taxpayers will be on the hook for the running and repair costs, thanks to the German Energy Act 2012.
Understandably, the projects investors are becoming increasingly nervous, which is why lawyers are now scrambling to pin the blame elsewhere. According to the German magazine Speigel everything has turned to the question of who is responsible for the fiasco and the costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The problem is described as "how to get the power back to shore".
100 KILOMETERS? WTF?
That's ridiculous. I don't know why they situated the power generation that far from shore. It wouldn't matter if the generator was wind, hydro (wave power), nuclear, or fossil fuel burning -- power transmission over that distance is a hell of a problem. It's hard enough to solve on land, much less over water.
I'm no fan (pun intentional) of large wind farms, but to be fair, this doesn't sound like a WIND GENERATOR problem, this sounds like a POWER TRANSMISSION problem, and that's independent of the source of the power.
Put the damn turbines closer to shore, you idiots!!
Hard to believe the Germans would make such an design error... anybody know why they would put them so far out over the water? Can't be the noise -- that would be unnoticeable after 10-15 KM, doesn't need 100 KM.
I do have to ask...why 100km off shore? Tides/currents? Winds? Geography? Shipping lanes? The noise?
That seems like a long way.
Bought a VW. Biggest piece of over engineered poorly designed car I have ever owned.
Best ergo engineers in my book? Mazda. Japanese trump Germans everyday.
NO, because it's NOT a wind problem, it's a power transmission problem, independent of source.
See my comment #21 above.
It IS a long way, and I can't imagine the reason for it. See my comment #21 above.
After Driving the VW I have to say that German engineering is over rated. Sort of like Scottish medicine. Resting too long on their laurels.
MEGA ditto!
“There are wind farms all over the world. Do they all have this problem?”
To be frank, I don’t know. Not covered in the article I read which only talked about Germany. Then again, I’m Bogie, not Frank!
Red herring, so to speak. There aren't many endangered birds that go out over the ocean, once you get a few KM away from shore.
Bird kills by wind turbines are a statistically minuscule problem even on land, but that's a different argument for a different thread. To answer your concern, I don't know of any rare or endangered over-water birds that would be affected by that "Green Machine".
If you do know of any species so affected, please let me know, as I'd be interested in having that information for arguments with big wind-farm advocates.
Also no matter how well designed, the salt water, salt spray and salt air will be brutal on any wind turbine. From the mechanical components to the electronics
Google “ABANDONED WIND FARMS”, click on Images and you will see what the USA will look like when the subsidy money runs out.
That's a damn shame, the Germans had a great reputation at one time.
I guess we have to change that old joke that goes something like:
HEAVEN is where:The British are the governmentHELL is where:
The French are the cooks
The Italians are the lovers
The Germans are the auto mechanics
The British are the cooks
The French are the auto mechanics
The Italians are the government
The Germans are the police
There are a couple of lines missing in my telling of that joke, anybody know the rest?
Fixed it:
HEAVEN is where:
The British are the government
The French are the cooks
The Italians are the lovers
The Japanese are the auto mechanics
HELL is where:
The British are the cooks
The French are the auto mechanics
The Italians are the government
The Japanese are the lovers.
Ich bin ein Bardlöser
Fahrvergnuegen?
Heaven is where:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faxlorethe police are British,Hell is where:
the lovers French,
the mechanics German,
the chefs Italian,
and it is all organized by the Swiss.the police are German,
the lovers Swiss,
the mechanics French,
the chefs British,
and it is all organized by the Italians.
So now we just have to substitute Japanese for German...
Well, at least it’s a ship. Maybe they can cruise a little closer to shore.
Heaven is where:
the police are British,
the lovers French,
the mechanics Japanese,
the chefs Italian,
and it is all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where:
the police are Japanese,
the lovers Swiss,
the mechanics French,
the chefs British,
and it is all organized by the Italians.
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