BP Solar’s announcement that it has broken ground on the new 60 megawatt, $100 million Silver Star1 wind farm 80 miles southwest of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area is just the latest sign of the increasingly rapid growth of the wind energy business in the United States.
As Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP America, put it in the press release, “Wind power is domestic, cost-competitive and offers rural communities a fresh revenue stream without impact to traditional farming and grazing practices. BP believes that sustainable energy alternatives and the development of the wind industry are in the best interests of the nation and the State of Texas – the leading State in installed wind power capacity.”
Wind energy sounds so attractive - the free wind blows, the turbines turn and the electrons flow - but, even as companies like BP expand in the wind niche, there is other news suggesting that while the wind is free, harvesting its energy is neither problem-free nor a panacea for our society’s energy needs.
The New York Times Monday republished an article from German’s Der Speigel, headlined “The Dangers of Wind Power.” Germany is the global leader in wind power with more than 19,000 windmills, more than in any other country.
Among its key points:
- Wind turbines are wearing out quickly, leading to possibly dangerous accidents, while scarce replacement parts mean broken turbines can be idled for a long time.
- Insurers now consider wind power a risky sector.
Says Der Speigel:
After the industry’s recent boom years, wind power providers and experts are now concerned. The facilities may not be as reliable and durable as producers claim. Indeed, with thousands of mishaps, breakdowns and accidents having been reported in recent years, the difficulties seem to be mounting. Gearboxes hiding inside the casings perched on top of the towering masts have short shelf lives, often crapping out before even five years is up. In some cases, fractures form along the rotors, or even in the foundation, after only limited operation. Short circuits or overheated propellers have been known to cause fires. All this despite manufacturers’ promises that the turbines would last at least 20 years.
Gearboxes have already had to be replaced “in large numbers,” the German Insurance Association is now complaining. “In addition to generators and gearboxes, rotor blades also often display defects,” a report on the technical shortcomings of wind turbines claims. The insurance companies are complaining of problems ranging from those caused by improper storage to dangerous cracks and fractures.
Even among insurers, who raced into the new market in the 1990s, wind power is now considered a risky sector. Industry giant Allianz was faced with around a thousand damage claims in 2006 alone. Jan Pohl, who works for Allianz in Munich, has calculated that on average “an operator has to expect damage to his facility every four years, not including malfunctions and uninsured breakdowns.”
Many insurance companies have learned their lessons and are now writing maintenance requirements — requiring wind farmers to replace vulnerable components such as gearboxes every five years — directly into their contracts. But a gearbox replacement can cost up to 10 percent of the original construction price tag, enough to cut deep into anticipated profits. Indeed, many investors may be in for a nasty surprise. “Between 3,000 and 4,000 older facilities are currently due for new insurance policies,” says Holger Martsfeld, head of technical insurance at Germany’s leading wind turbine insurer Gothaer. “We know that many of these facilities have flaws.”
While most of the problems Der Speigel spotlights can be addressed by engineering and by business negotiations, wind power is simply unsuited to be a panacea for our energy needs, writes H. Douglas Lightfoot, a retired mechanical engineer in Canada who runs the website NobodysFuel.com, which promotes his DVD Nobody’s Fuel.
Lightfoot this week issued a press release stating that wind power “is simply not green,” and asserting that “wind and solar electricity cannot supply more than 10% of electricity on the world’s electricity grids,” for some basic technical reasons.
H. Douglas Lightfoot of Nobodysfuel.com has announced evidence that there is a limit to the amount of intermittent electricity which can be assimilated by existing electrical grids. He also explains that wind and solar power do not significantly mitigate carbon dioxide emissions. This research is detailed in DVD format, entitled Nobody’s Fuel - energy supply is more important than climate change.
“The public is not aware that when any wind power is being delivered to a fossil fuel powered grid, the fossil fuel plant does not shut down because it takes too long to start up again when wind power stops. Thus,” Lightfoot explained, “when wind electricity is being delivered, fossil fuel is being burned and carbon dioxide is emitted. This is known as spinning reserve mode. Wind electricity is not green when supplementing a fossil fuel plant.”
“Spinning reserve mode is something like having your foot on the brake of your car waiting at a red light,” Lightfoot explained. “Your car doesn’t move, but the engine is still running. And the engine must run, because when the light turns green, you need the power immediately. Unfortunately, just like your car at a stoplight,” Lightfoot explained, “spinning reserve mode consumes energy.”
“Many people promoting wind power are not aware that large wind turbine projects and solar arrays can achieve no more than a 10% reduction in energy consumption or carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel plants for generating electricity,” Lightfoot explained. This is simply because more than 10% of intermittent wind power is too much of a shock to the grid, which becomes vulnerable to power delivery disruption. Furthermore,” Lightfoot explained, “wind mills stop turning and producing power if wind speed is too low and stop suddenly when wind speed is too high–they shut down to try to prevent damage from high winds.”
And yet there is a rush on to expand wind power.
I suspect part of the reason for that is that engineers believe they can solve many of the technical problems and breakdowns, and also because there is research underway to mitigate the problem of the intermittent nature of wind power by storing electricity generated by wind turbines rather than dumping it immediately into the power grid.
Indeed, innovative entrepreneurialism is what’s driving companies like Clipper Wind, a partner in BP’s Texas wind farm, to develop new and better wind turbines.
But I suspect another reason for the rush to expand our use of wind power is the politics and PR value of it. The political climate now favors politicians who are perceived as “green” or environmentally progressive, and energy companies and utilities want their customers and the politicians to view them as “green.”
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