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There's a Wind Turbine On the Horizon With Blades the Size of Trump Tower
merbs writes: Imagine a stretch of open ocean, populated by a swath of wind turbines with skyscraper-sized blades, whipping into the gusts like enormous palm trees. The vision is partly terrifying, partly inspiring, and being taken entirely seriously by the federal government and one of our top research laboratories. [Sandia National Labs, in an effort led by the University of Virginia] has unveiled the preliminary design for a new offshore wind turbine with 650-foot turbine blades. That, as its announcement points out, is twice the size of an American football field. It's also roughly the size of Trump Tower in New York.
Is there nothing that doesn't somehow tie back to XKCD?
https://xkcd.com/556/
Seriously, this is cool - but the Trump name drop is as bad as apple-baiting.
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Just how quickly can these blades be secured and protected if wind storms approach? In many areas wind spouts (tornados over the water) are common events. So can these blades survive a 200 mph. wind?
It's also roughly the size of Trump Tower in New York, maybe a more relevant reference point here, since we're talking scale and bluster.
Large turbines spin slower, and hence will not do any chopping. Birds can fly around it, although some won't and it will be on par with a stationary skyscrapers that kill plenty of birds too.
On the contrary, this is probably the best way to make windmills bird-safe. The bigger the blades, the slower they'll move.
If it is far enough out to sea, there shouldn't be to many birds in the first place.
Imagine a stretch of open ocean, populated by a swath of wind turbines with skyscraper-sized blades
Now imagine those wind turbines getting hit by a hurricane.
And now imagine them self-stowing into a "secure" configuration, until the hurricane passes.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
0mph is enough to kill a bird considering how many die just from hitting large buildings.
Current blades are trucked in one piece (per blade) which is impressive to see. Three of them were parked on I-5 outside of Patterson, California a few months ago. There are a lot of net videos and photos which convey the scale.
Even at the current size they can't get through many highway interchanges and local intersections. The larger ones won't be able to ship in one piece at all.
"ship" is the point. These are designs of offshore turbines. They would probably make the blades in shipyards and transport them on a barge directly to the site.