Wind Turbines....

[vulcan42]

....shut down when wind exceeds 55mph. Assuming most of them will be inoperative tomorrow, can anybody hazard a guess on what percentage of electricity generated on a normal day, will be lost?

[goodgoalie]

They don't work when it's too windy, they don't work when there's no wind - bring out the wood pellets!

[Stickybottle]

I guess there is a reason they turn them inactive in high winds :

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/M-o-4yYb59g

[THECORBYLOON]

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 24% of electricity was generated by wind turbines in 2020.

[goodgoalie]

Might well be something like this tomorrow:

[Mamyalynne]

I was going to say well done to the Professor for saving the Dog, but Tubby perished.

[vulcan42]

Thank you for your replies, losing nearly 25% of the countries power to the vagaries of weather seems a tad inefficient. I assume the more they build the worse it will get?

[Stickybottle]

I do not see it that way Vulcan
This is going to be an extreme weather event well outside normal parameters

Harnessing the energy from it would be extremely difficult if not impossible

[Gromit]

vulcan42
// losing nearly 25% of the countries power to the vagaries of weather seems a tad inefficient //

Outages through excess wind are very rare, just a few hours every year. Wind turbines are very efficient and very cheap. And the problem will not be countrywide. The wind may be above safety margins in one region, but perfectly fine in the rest.
Our energy generating systems rely on a diverse range of input devices, so on cloudy days when less solar energy is being collected, output from hydro, nuclear or fossil fuels is increased.

[beso]

The one in Stickybottle's video isn't about high wind speed. As you can see the other turbines are operating normally.

It appears to have had a failure of the blade pitch control and is probably also running unloaded. Might even be a gearbox failure. I'm amazed at how fast it was going before it destroyed itself.

(I worked on wind turbine design and prototype construction in the mid to late 1990s. Not on this scale but the principles are the same.)

[beso]

Tacoma narrows was an engineering error that taught bridge designers a lot about how wind interacts with structures.

[vulcan42]

Again, thank you for your answers. I suppose, looking at this cynically, one could say that the gales that stop the turbines from generating are the same gales that knock out electricity for thousands of people, thus less electricity is needed. :o)

[Stickybottle]

Who knew ?

From the Sky News live feed :

Wind generating 42% of UK electricity as Storm Eunice hits
National Grid figures reported at 8.30am showed wind was generating 42% of UK energy.
This was the largest electricity source proportionally by some distance - and likely to have increased as winds have grown in strength across the country.

[chamois]

For those that are interested, you can view the percentage amounts of the different kinds of electricity production here:

https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

It's not in real time but it's almost so.

[bobbinwales]

From today's news.. prices plummet today for energy due to huge volume of windpower