Can wind power even produce enough energy to build new windmills? It seems to me no power source can be self-sustaining if it can’t produce enough energy to support its replication.
“Can wind power even produce enough energy to build new windmills? It seems to me no power source can be self-sustaining if it can’t produce enough energy to support its replication.”
Not a huge fan of wind turbines but the fact is they will make 40 times the energy needed to make them all in over their lifespan in a class 4 or higher wind field. Higher the wind field the bigger the EROI becomes. You can make steel,concrete and glass fibers with nothing but electricity, steel needs a carbon source but biocharcoal can be used with hydrogen as the reducing agent, same for calcification of lime to CaO2 for cement plus aggregate to concrete. Glass is already made with electric furnaces in a number of industries. The Swedes and Norwegians with large hydro power systems make steel with electricity, Iceland as well with aluminum being Ireland’s number one metal export why? Because Iceland has huge hydro and geothermal energy sources power is cheap and Alcoa has their largest plant in Iceland.
Offshore wind only makes sense in the Northern latitudes where you have class 6+ wind fields those allow 40%+ capacity factors use that to make hydrogen,ammonia,or ethanol via electrolytic cells. Bunker the product for times when it’s not windy which in a class 6 field is not often it’s more often it’s too windy and you have to feather the blades. The waters around Scotland and Ireland have some of the highest speed continuous winds on the planet. Down south there also exists the same roaring forties but there is no land masses nearby only Tasmania and southern New Zealand and Patagonia all are wind ripped year round day and night. It’s not a energy source issue at those places it’s how do you move the energy in useable form. Here is where modern tech of low capex electrolytic cells is coming into maturity.once capex is low enough to use 30 to 40% capacity factor resources you have access to massive amounts of energy. Same for solar in the deserts get H2 pem cells down to $300-200Kg/hr and you can use 12hours of daylight in the low.latitudes deserts and forget about the night time production hours.