More bad news for off-shore Wind Farms?

[Dorts]

In an essay by Matt Ridley in the Spectator there is a nice summary of the arguments against wind power starting with the sentance: "To the nearest whole number, the percentage of the world’s energy that comes from wind turbines today is: zero"

But more importantly it also includes this paragraph.

"I have it on good authority from a marine engineer that keeping wind turbines upright in the gravel, tides and storms of the North Sea for 25 years is a near hopeless quest, so the repair bill is going to be horrific and the output disappointing. Already the grouting in the foundations of hundreds of turbines off Kent, Denmark and the Dogger Bank has failed, necessitating costly repairs."

Matt Ridley: The Beginning Of The End Of Wind

Is this yet another area that has not been fully thought through?
Dorts.

[muldonach]

Originally Posted by Dorts

In an essay by Matt Ridley in the Spectator there is a nice summary of the arguments against wind power starting with the sentance: "To the nearest whole number, the percentage of the world’s energy that comes from wind turbines today is: zero"

But more importantly it also includes this paragraph.

"I have it on good authority from a marine engineer that keeping wind turbines upright in the gravel, tides and storms of the North Sea for 25 years is a near hopeless quest, so the repair bill is going to be horrific and the output disappointing. Already the grouting in the foundations of hundreds of turbines off Kent, Denmark and the Dogger Bank has failed, necessitating costly repairs."

Matt Ridley: The Beginning Of The End Of Wind

Is this yet another area that has not been fully thought through?
Dorts.

Without having any specialist knowledge of the windfarms in question I would take that statement with a pinch of salt. Wind turbines are installed onto monopiles hammered into good load bearing strata and the minimum engineering standard will be that they have to withstand the 100 year return storm (I work in the offshore construction business but not to date in windfarms).

The "grout in the foundation failures" in all probability relate to nothing more than a bit of cracking in grout applied in the tidal scour zone - although if anyone has any other info please bring it forward.

Cheers
mac

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by muldonach

Without having any specialist knowledge of the windfarms in question I would take that statement with a pinch of salt. Wind turbines are installed onto monopiles hammered into good load bearing strata and the minimum engineering standard will be that they have to withstand the 100 year return storm (I work in the offshore construction business but not to date in windfarms).
The "grout in the foundation failures" in all probability relate to nothing more than a bit of cracking in grout applied in the tidal scour zone - although if anyone has any other info please bring it forward.
Cheers. mac

A little more info re; the problem with the 'grout' is explained here:

London Array: Taming the tides | Wind Energy Update

Here's a part: "The monopile foundation design it had chosen was declared flawed. In late 2009 evidence surfaced that a poor design had resulted in dissolved grouting. An advisory note issued later by IHS Emerging Energy Research confirmed that dissolved grouting had caused turbines to shift within monopile foundations in roughly 600 of Europe’s installed 948 offshore turbines."
The original problem stemmed from the way the turbines were fixed onto the monopile foundations. The monopile is a massive hollow steel tube that is driven up to 40 metres into the seabed. The original design involved fitting a parallel sided, hollow transition piece over the top of the monopile, and then bolting the turbine tower onto the top of it. To prevent the transition piece from moving, the gap between the transition piece and monopile was packed with grout before the turbine was installed.

However, constant bending of the turbine resulted in the grout crushing at the top and bottom, causing the structures to slide. Det Norsk Veritas (DNV), which had recommended the original design, consequently proposed alternative designs using conical shaped connections in the grouted section or shear keys, which compensate for the large dynamic bending moments.

In December last year, DNV officially issued statements of compliance for the conical design. But is there a risk that it could still fail?

By reading further, it appears that the particular instalation refered to is in the Thames Estuary and has had nothing but problems .
Dorts.

[muldonach]

Well there you go - all very logical and makes perfect sense - thanks for that. I was always under the impression that having driven the monopile a transition piece was welded on and the pylon bolted on to it.

Cheers
mac

[The_Moaner]

I HOPE the Lot Fall over and Sink. I HATE em..

[nightshade]

They were always inefficient old technology, but relatively cheap, which made them attractive to politicians.

[Jim Ford]

A plus for wind turbines:

I was told by a wind turbine engineer, that at the end of its life they can clear the site and a month later you'd never know it had been there. Bit of a contrast to nuclear power stations!

Jim

[APC]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

A plus for wind turbines:

I was told by a wind turbine engineer, that at the end of its life they can clear the site and a month later you'd never know it had been there. Bit of a contrast to nuclear power stations!

Jim

And the lot can be recycled. I'd love to turn up with a windfarm in the back of a Transit van at the scrappy and weigh it in.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by APC

And the lot can be recycled. I'd love to turn up with a windfarm in the back of a Transit van at the scrappy and weigh it in.

Alternatively the core of a nuclear reactor!

;^)

Jim

[PMG]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

Alternatively the core of a nuclear reactor!

;^)

Jim

Our scrapman would turn up at the scrappy with it 'glowing' on the back of his Ford 'tranny'

Pauline