Wind turbine

[Sanddancer]

I'm after some advice about wind turbines, I'm thinking this is the best option as solar is out of the question. It would be used to charge the batteries and run the fridge, anyone tried this?.

[ditchcrawler]

Is your boat moored offshore or inland

[Alan de Enfield]

 

Are you deaf and insensitive to severe vibrations ?

 

Do you enjoy paying out large sums of money and getting nothing in return ?

Edited October 20, 2021 by Alan de Enfield

[Slim]

Only ever sailed one boat with a wind generator. Ìt spent almost all it's life in a locker.

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, Sanddancer said:

I'm after some advice about wind turbines, I'm thinking this is the best option as solar is out of the question. It would be used to charge the batteries and run the fridge, anyone tried this?.

 

Before solar became cheap enough some tried but please ignore the makers output figures, they are for a near gale and with no flukes in the wind. Ideal for off shore but inland the wind tends to slow and too fluky.

 

Carefully check the output data at long term wind speeds likely in your area. you will almost certainly find a larger solar array will do better, even in the winter. Solar will provide next to nothing in very cloudy winter days but wind will be similar at no or low wind speeds.

[Alan de Enfield]

2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Before solar became cheap enough some tried but please ignore the makers output figures, they are for a near gale and with no flukes in the wind. Ideal for off shore but inland the wind tends to slow and too fluky.

 

Even the huge offshore windfarms get becalmed - it was only a few days ago that Southern England had no leccy because there was no wind and they had to turn on the gas power stations, at the same time Scotland had to shut down their wind tubines becasue they were producing too much and, surprise surprise, there is no link between Scotland and England to 'ship' the leccy down South.

[Tony Brooks]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Even the huge offshore windfarms get becalmed - it was only a few days ago that Southern England had no leccy because there was no wind and they had to turn on the gas power stations, at the same time Scotland had to shut down their wind tubines becasue they were producing too much and, surprise surprise, there is no link between Scotland and England to 'ship' the leccy down South.

 

Yet private companies want to build an undersea inter connector but not one over land.

[George and Dragon]

4 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Even the huge offshore windfarms get becalmed - it was only a few days ago that Southern England had no leccy because there was no wind and they had to turn on the gas power stations, at the same time Scotland had to shut down their wind tubines becasue they were producing too much and, surprise surprise, there is no link between Scotland and England to 'ship' the leccy down South.

I find that hard to believe. More likely the wind was blowing too hard in Scotland so the windfarms had to be shut down meaning there was no leccy to export to England.

 

I shall enquire of my sister-in-law who used to balance supply and demand at National Grid.

 

8 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Yet private companies want to build an undersea inter connector but not one over land.

We have a connection from Norway. I wonder where that comes ashore.

[Alan de Enfield]

10 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

I find that hard to believe. More likely the wind was blowing too hard in Scotland so the windfarms had to be shut down meaning there was no leccy to export to England.

 

It was reported a couple of weeks ago and was on my google news updates.

[Higgs]

17 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

We have a connection from Norway. I wonder where that comes ashore.

 

Apparently, it comes in through Mrs Austin's kitchen window - Blyth.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Higgs

[ditchcrawler]

39 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Before solar became cheap enough some tried but please ignore the makers output figures, they are for a near gale and with no flukes in the wind. Ideal for off shore but inland the wind tends to slow and too fluky.

 

Carefully check the output data at long term wind speeds likely in your area. you will almost certainly find a larger solar array will do better, even in the winter. Solar will provide next to nothing in very cloudy winter days but wind will be similar at no or low wind speeds.

This came up on Facebook and I looked into the spec, for a vertical 600Watt turbine and it needed a wind speed of 59MPH for full output.

26 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

I find that hard to believe. More likely the wind was blowing too hard in Scotland so the windfarms had to be shut down meaning there was no leccy to export to England.

 

 

 Come to the Norfolk Suffolk coast and have a look on a still day, you will see them just sitting if its not too misty.

[Jerra]

1 hour ago, George and Dragon said:

I find that hard to believe. More likely the wind was blowing too hard in Scotland so the windfarms had to be shut down meaning there was no leccy to export to England.

 

I shall enquire of my sister-in-law who used to balance supply and demand at National Grid.

 

We have a connection from Norway. I wonder where that comes ashore.

I always thought the National Grid was for just this purpose and to pass power round the country.   Have I been mislead?

[George and Dragon]

National Grid has a map that appears to show two connections between England and Scotland. 

https://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/electricity-transmission/network-and-infrastructure/network-route-maps

 

There's also a world map https://openinframap.org/#5/54.36/-3.13

3 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

 Come to the Norfolk Suffolk coast and have a look on a still day, you will see them just sitting if its not too misty.

Undoubtedly. The bit I was struggling to believe was that there's no way to move electricity between Scotland and England.

The Norwegian interconnect comes ashore north of Newcastle

[ditchcrawler]

9 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

 

Undoubtedly. The bit I was struggling to believe was that there's no way to move electricity between Scotland and England.

The Norwegian interconnect comes ashore north of Newcastle

He said there wasn't any to send, not they couldn't send it if they had any.  You can't blame the postman if no one writes you a letter

[Sanddancer]

Thank you everyone,I need to think more.

[George and Dragon]

21 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

He said there wasn't any to send, not they couldn't send it if they had any.  You can't blame the postman if no one writes you a letter

You obviously read a different post.

 

4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Even the huge offshore windfarms get becalmed - it was only a few days ago that Southern England had no leccy because there was no wind and they had to turn on the gas power stations, at the same time Scotland had to shut down their wind tubines becasue they were producing too much and, surprise surprise, there is no link between Scotland and England to 'ship' the leccy down South.

I read that to mean they couldn't ship the leccy down south so they had to shut the windfarms down. Maybe the postman lost the letter.

 

There is a lack of capacity on those links but that's not quite the same as no link.

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, George and Dragon said:

You obviously read a different post.

 

I read that to mean they couldn't ship the leccy down south so they had to shut the windfarms down. Maybe the postman lost the letter.

 

There is a lack of capacity on those links but that's not quite the same as no link.

OK I'm confused now

[George and Dragon]

16 hours ago, George and Dragon said:

I shall enquire of my sister-in-law who used to balance supply and demand at National Grid.

 

Sis-in-law says: 

National Grid are working on plans to boost the existing connections from Scotland to England using Interconnectors from Coast to coast.  They were calling them ‘boot straps’.  One will be from Peterhead to Drax.  They will officially be called Green link 1 and 2 and are expected to get planning permission in 2022/23. National Grid don’t own the electricity system in Scotland but they run it for Scottish & Southern. 

We really rely on wind and solar panels and NG have to manage constraints like frequency in set parameters. So I can see why they had to turn on gas stations. I guess managing frequency in Scotland meant they had to turn off wind farms to balance the system. 

[phantom_iv]

On 21/10/2021 at 08:50, George and Dragon said:

Sis-in-law says: 

National Grid are working on plans to boost the existing connections from Scotland to England using Interconnectors from Coast to coast.  They were calling them ‘boot straps’.  One will be from Peterhead to Drax.  They will officially be called Green link 1 and 2 and are expected to get planning permission in 2022/23. National Grid don’t own the electricity system in Scotland but they run it for Scottish & Southern. 

We really rely on wind and solar panels and NG have to manage constraints like frequency in set parameters. So I can see why they had to turn on gas stations. I guess managing frequency in Scotland meant they had to turn off wind farms to balance the system. 

 

Nice, thanks, didn't know about the new connectors, makes sense! Reading more about them, should be online by 2027. They also have some new forms of inertia coming online in the next few years to manage the frequency and voltage better, so by 2025 they recon they'll be able to turn off all the gas if there's enough wind/solar around - at the moment they need to pay wind farms to shut down instead. Hopefully will make the bills a bit cheaper 😉 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

On 20/10/2021 at 20:31, Sanddancer said:

Thank you everyone,I need to think more.

You saw a few inland boats with wind turbines in the '90's and '00's, but very few now. Since then, the cost of solar PV has plummeted, so most boaters use that.