Wind Turbines Fail to Generate Power

The Jakarta Post
Sat, 12/20/2008
Komang Erviani

The government has plans to build wind farms all over the US. There are several that have been constructed most notable is the one in California that is used in film all the time. In the dozens of films and TV show we have seen them and in all cases they are either very slowly turning or not turning at all – so that in all those cases they are generating nothing.  I have read of a farm on the east coast that was built but the wiring from the local power company has not allowed them to hook up to the grid because of fears they will blow transformers of burn off grid cables. The reason is wind power is either feast or famine so in high wind situations these propellers are churning away like mad and produce high voltage for limited periods of time, and for much of the time there is not enough wind to have a “Wind Farm”  light up a farm house and barn.  Can you imagine the brown outs and black outs this will create when these wind farms are figured into the nation power consumption figures? These are the same people who have given us global warming, nuff said.


Seven wind turbines launched in Nusa Penida, an island southeast of Bali, during the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference
(UNFCCC) in December 2007 have failed to deliver any of their promised power to local residents.

A solar plant was also opened during the conference, as a demonstration of the administrations commitment to renewable energy. The solar plant continues to perform efficiently, producing up to 30 kilowatts of electricity per hour. The wind farms, however, have stayed silent.

Head of Nusa Penida district Wayan Sumarta acknowledged that the seven wind plants have never been operational.

He said he regrets their failure, lamenting the fact that the plants cost billions of rupiah to construct and had not lived up the high hopes locals had for them as an alternative source of energy.

"It is truly regrettable that a major project like this was not been managed appropriately. Now, they are nothing more than monuments. We expect the government to pay serious attention to them," he said.

Each wind turbine (see picture) cost a reported Rp 3.5 billion (US $325,000) to build and had a planned production capacity 80 kilowatts.

Contacted by phone, spokesperson of the Bali branch of the state-owned electricity company PT PLN, Agung Mustika, denied that the plants have never worked.

"All of the plants operate normally. If their turbines do not move, they are storing the energy. It doesn't mean they are not functioning," he said.

PLN financed in part the construction of the plants and is responsible for their operation and maintenance.--JP/Ni Komang Erviani

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