Ecotricity - Bristol Port - Wind Turbine Construction Video

[kaieteurdevon]

Excellent video, excellent technology. Wind turbines are one of the most efficient, cheapest ways to harness electricity. Clean, renewable electricity is the only way forward. Nuclear and fossil fuel pollution is so dangerous it needs to be put to bed. There is no such thing as clean coal or clean gas and definitely no such thing as clean nuclear.

[MMGWsceptic]

@kaieteurdevon It takes 6000 windmills like this to unreliably equal the output of one conventional power station. (3GW / (0.25 x 2MW) = 6000 ). Each turbine requires - tonnes of concrete, steal, rare-earths (sourced from China). 6000 turbines require about 300km2 of countryside to be ruined with ugly 100m high industrial turbines - and miles of expensive ugly pylons to transport the leccy from remote windy locations to cities. Compare this to the eco-footprint of a regular powerplant.

[kaieteurdevon]

@MMGWsceptic Wind turbines harness a free, abundant, constant and clearly renewable resource. Old dirty technologies are heading for the museum and will play no significant part in the future of our energy needs.

The ‘ecological footprint’ of wind turbines are benign when compared to the destruction caused by the construction, mining process and combustion of dirty fossil fuels.

[MMGWsceptic]

@kaieteurdevon It's not physically possible to generate the 30GW we get from coal & gas by wind. The cost, materials & land required are simply too vast:

Consider land area:

30GW ( 0.25 x 2MW ) = 60,000 turbines required

Turbines need a spacing of 9 x rotor diameters for wake turbulence. So area per turbine = (9 x 100m) squared = 0.81km2.

So the 60,000 turbines require 48,600km2

That's 20% of the UK land area. Not possible.

There are more cost & land efficient ways to reduce CO2.

[kaieteurdevon]

@MMGWsceptic UK waters hold enough potential from wind alone to supply the UK with an abundance of clean renewable energy with plenty to export.

Offshore wind alone already produces 5GW in UK waters 300 MW at Thanet, another 1GW from the London array being constructed.

More in the planning stage 8GW at dogger bank, 6GW in the Irish Sea, 5GW firth of forth, 3GW East Anglia, 2GW from the channel, 2GW at Atlantic array, 2GW Argyll array and many, many more.

[MMGWsceptic]

@kaieteurdevon Your figures above are the max theoretical output under ideal wind conditions . Due to wind variability the average output is only 25% of this.

Even this variable output cannot be fully utilised - eg. if a storm blows up at night when demand is low - the grid is forced to dump the power - so the USEFUL output is even less than 25%..

And gas power stations are still needed to provide backup for the 80% of the time when the wind's blowing to slow or too fast. Madness

[kaieteurdevon]

@MMGWsceptic You still have a lot to learn about wind energy and how it is harnessed and fed into a grid. Fact is wind energy is free, abundant and clean. Gas, coal nuclear etc is dirty increasingly expensive, extremely polluting and obviously tremendously expensive!

Coal and gas power stations are extremely inefficient. The fuel must be mined, and transported huge distances to where it is burnt for energy. Wind however is free and abundant.

[kaieteurdevon]

@MMGWsceptic Wind energy can be stored easily using numerous methods: eg pumped storage, compressed air energy storage (CAES), Flywheel energy storage (FES) As the ‘grid is updated and brought up to speed with cleaner more efficient ways of harnessing electricity, storage issues will be dealt with. Gas power stations are NOT needed. The antiquated fossil fuels technology is being replaced with cleaner more efficient technologies. The sooner the better.

[MMGWsceptic]

@kaieteurdevon The UK's entire pumped storage capacity can only provide 2.7GW for only 5 hours then it drops to 1GW, and finally runs out of water after 22 hours (John Muir Trust report). In the coldest winter months we often get a low-wind anti-cyclone sitting over the UK for days on end. Where's the power going to come from when we need it most? Large scale wind is lunacy.

[MMGWsceptic]

@kaieteurdevon Contrary to your claim - energy cannot be stored 'easily'. Pumped storage systems are very costly. eg. Dinorwig cost £0.5Bn in 1974 and took 10 years to build.

Existing pumped storage capacity like Dinorwig is already fully utilized responding to demand variations. Therefore additional storage for wind backup should rightly be added to the cost of wind power - which is already 4-to-7 times more costly than conventional power - without including backup costs.

[ChuffChuffWoo]

Denmark has, we could do at least 20%

[ChuffChuffWoo]

Forget all this trehuggery - Atomic power is the way forward - the Japanese make the worlds most reliable stuff - so lets have an atomic plant like the one at Fukushima in Japan - good solid relaible trouble atomic fission.

[HomeWindTurbines7]

This video is great. See my home energy stuffif you like SOLAR POWER. Merry Christmas Y'all!

[ChuffChuffWoo]

Westmill Wind Farm 'paid back' all of the fuel used in its manufacture and construction within the first year of operation.

[MMGWsceptic]

@ChuffChuffWoo I'm calling BS on that without some facts and figures. Millions of tonnes of concrete? Loads of rare earths from China (who incidentally control 90% of world production - so much for the 'security of supply' argument). And paid back on only 20% unpredicatble, intermittent output? Including the cost of providing CCGT hot-standby backup for when the wind doesn't blow. Paid back within the first year you say? Pull the other one - it's got bells on.

[TheSmellyBam]

@MMGWsceptic In your comments and from your user's page you come across as extremely bitter, and I wonder if the anger you display in your comments is because your life is missing something? Often people find things to hate: other races/genders, renewable energy, bankers, politicians, whatever, because they are angry people rather than because they actually believe in what they are saying.

Think about it.

[MMGWsceptic]

@TheSmellyBam So anyone that doesn't agree with you must be crazy and/or racist and/or a misogynist right?

Clearly you can't make a case using facts and rational argument so instead you resort to personal insults and slurs. It's thanks to infantile debating tactics like yours that public opinion is moving steadily against irrational eco-alarmism and against climate profiteers.

So keep up the great work! You're doing a super job!

[TheSmellyBam]

@MMGWsceptic more bitterness... some people just love to watch the world burn

[MMGWsceptic]

@TheSmellyBam More bogus character projections to avoid rational debate.

More false attribution of evil motives to people who don't agree with you.

Classic 10:10 eco-facist.

[JohnFaaashanu]

@MMGWsceptic Do you ever stop whining?

[MMGWsceptic]

@JohnFaaashanu Grow up. If you ever move out of mummy's basement and start paying the bills yourself then you might not be so keen on being ripped-off by subsidy farming Big Green energy fraudsters. You might also object to the same fraudsters forcing their economy crippling schemes on third world countries - slowing development, increasing poverty, hunger and suffering.

[TheSmellyBam]

@MMGWsceptic Jees, you have some issues man.

[MMGWsceptic]

@TheSmellyBam Yes, issues with plonkers like you and JohnFashinu

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic Still more rubbish

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic Rubbish again

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic Facts and figures are available, alas people like you pretend that they don't exist. No power station is 100% reliable so ALL power stations need backup. Wind is not 'intermittent' its variable, and follows weather patterns that are becoming more understood and easier to predict all the time, there are plenty of communities the world over that get the bulk of their electricity from wind - you can't tell them its all BS. Wind is gaining more and more ground as the technology improve

[MMGWsceptic]

@ChuffChuffWoo Yes - real power stations are occasionally taken offline for SCHEDULED maintenance. You can't compare that to the random unpredictable nature of wind which can only be forecast to about +-50% a few days ahead.

You can check the figures on the bmreports website: Currently the UK's 5GW of windmills are only generating 139MW = 2.8% of their rated capacity. And this is during an exceptionally cold spell when demand is high and all stations are working flat out.

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic I worked at the UK's second biggest power station for ten years - UNSCHEDULED generator trips occur roughly once a month - maintance and consumable boiler parts replacement took the units (generators out of action for around six months every four years)

[MMGWsceptic]

@ChuffChuffWoo In 2009 the UK Drax coal-fired powerstation reported 89% availability, with 5% planned outages and only 6% forced outages. (Source Draxgroup annual report 2009 ).

How does that compare with wind's 0% reliability? Wind can never provide power on demand - only when the wind blows. Unless it can be used in with pumped storage it's completely useless.

So what was your job at the powerstation? Making the tea?

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic Yes - making the tea (well boiling lots of water anyway!;-)) Anyway, Nuclear power is the way forward, cheap, reliable Japanese atomic power - can't beat the Japanese for reliabillity...!

[MMGWsceptic]

Cool. I'm not a fan of nuclear either. When there's an accident at a gas power station you get an explosion - maybe a few fatalities on site. But when a nuclear plant goes wrong.....

It's not worth the risk (not to mention the cost). Not when there's plentiful cheap, clean gas. The US DOE say they have enough shale gas for 250yrs. By that time nuclear tech should be safe enough to use.

But let's not pretend you can power a modern economy on intermittent wind and solar.

[prop23FAIL]

Love IT!!! California needs to invest more in Green Tech!!! Prop 23 is down in the polls, but the Yes on 23 campaign just got a new influx of hot, anonymous cash, so we'll need to fend them off in the home stretch to Election Day.

Hit me back if you'd like to talk Prop 23. We're coming out with a bunch of great No on Prop 23 videos soon!

- prop23FAIL

[HomeWindTurbines7]

It's an artful; presentation, nice work. Who did the editing?

[jonesbodyrepairs]

And you are planning to build 14 of these things near us at westhunspill?

Made / installed / operated by non u/k jobs?

Only operate at 30% of rated output?

Devaluing homes wherever they grow?

Once there ,open the gates for more?

Never recoup the cost and energy of what it cost to build them?

Cost per unit --turbine / against nuke?

I hope you are building your next batch to place out to sea or on some desolate moor somewhere where there are no people to abuse?

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@jonesbodyrepairs Rubbish!

[SmallWindTurbines]

What a giant waste of manpower and resources. 7% of all the electricity is lost in transmission. Wasteful. The same raw materials and labor should go to putting smaller rooftop wind turbines at the point of use. Then the 7% for the life of the equipment will be saved, used. Look at my videos of wind power, it's a far better approach than these big wind farms. Then there's all the copper it takes to carry the power from some remote location. Peace.

[enicao]

@SmallWindTurbines

if you have a small rooftop windturbine, you need a battery and an inverter, you loose at least 20% of the electricity you produce. and batteries are really expensive

big wind farms produce cheaper electricity than small rooftop wind turbines

[MMGWsceptic]

Total energy per yr = 6MW x 20% avg output x 365 days x 24 hrs = 10512 MWhrs

CO2 saving = 10,512 MWHr x 0.7 tons of CO2 / MWHr for coal = 6400 tons of CO2.

Note: This only translates into a real saving if the standby backup generation is CO2 free (eg. hydroelectric or nuclear)

Total global est man-made CO2 emissions = 3x10^10 tons / yr. The UK emits 2% of this.

So these 3 turbines will save 0.001% of UK & 0.00002% of global emissions which are growing at 3% / yr as China & India grow

[MMGWsceptic]

So to put it another way, you'd need to erect 450,000 of these turbines each year just to counteract the annual growth in CO2 emissions. That's 1200 per day.

This is neither physically possible nor economically viable.

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic Rubbish!

[WockneysRedBarrel]

@MMGWsceptic On your point, that these 3 turbines will make no difference to UK/global total CO2 emissions, this is like saying.

"Don't bother fixing the pothole in the road outside my house, there's millions more on other roads elsewhere".

"Close the local school, its only one of many tens of thousands in the UK".

"Doesn't matter if I run someone over and kill them, because that life is only of many thousands that are lost on the roads each year".

[MMGWsceptic]

@WockneysRedBarrel No it's not like saying those things atall. It's simple enough - no need for bogus analogies: You'd need to erect 1200 turbines a day to counteract the growth in CO2 emissions from Asia.

This is the point you need to address. Not some bogus strawman point you just made up because you don't like the actual facts & figures.

The UK gov are wasting billions of taxpayers money on these things - money that could be spent on schools, hospitals or medical research.

Peace

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic Yes lets not bother with renewables, and continue to squander our resources until we run out - that is the cheapest option.

[MMGWsceptic]

@ChuffChuffWoo Yes - let's not bother with the 10% Biofuel mandate which has forced world food prices to double pushing millions into food poverty and starvation.

Let's not bother with the solar feed-in tarriff which forces poor pensioners to subsidize the solar panels of smug rich idiots and subsidy farmers.

Let's not bother with medieval windmills - intermittent, unreliable, unsightly, hugely expensive subsidy magnets.

Let's "squander our resources" staying warm this winter.

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic Short sighted self serving rubbish yet again.

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@WockneysRedBarrel Agreed!

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@WockneysRedBarrel Well said - I don't know who is paying these guys to slag off renewables, but I cant see how else they can defy the proven facts of wind power in order to rubbish this abundant source of energy.

[ChuffChuffWoo]

@MMGWsceptic More rubbish

[MMGWsceptic]

Just to clarify: These turbines produce 2MW each when the wind is blowing at optimum speed. However average output over the year is only 20% due to wind speed variation. At times the output will fall to zero when the wind is too weak or too strong. So standby conventional generation is needed for these periods greatly increasing the cost and reducing CO2 savings.

[2004carlt]

Look at "Rare Earth Mineral Mining in China" on Youtube

[RiDeRWaTch]

Look , if you guys think wind power sucks like hell, there's other thing like water power or geometrical power. Anyway this renewable energies saves tons of money. So either say shit about this wind power and protest outside the government buildings of US while getting a high bill OR let Earth live longer and get CHEAPER bills. But GREAT VIDEO!

[ToxicBrainSyndrome]

Wind energy. If we took 1 tillion dollars the cost of the wars in you know where. 1 trillion/4 million (estimated cost of scale for a commercial one wind turbine) would net 25 billion wind turbines. One wind turbine can generate 2.5MWh electricity. 2.5MWh can power 350 homes in a northern cold state. 25 billion X 250 homes? I think that pretty much covers the US needs for power. Just having fun here, don't shoot the messenger.

[pegobuilders]

design and build for increased energy efficiency

[eng3ineguys]

Immigration? Dude if you aren't an American Indian, you are an immigrant or a descendant thereof. If it wasn't for immigration, there wouldn't be a United States, Merry Christmas.

[Franziskalein]

wow there are some weird oppinions here.....

anti wind energy? wtf?

[rocketsredglare101]

I think the best way to reduce carbon emissions in the west is to have an immigration moratorium. Statistics clearlyu show the USA population grew by 100 million in the last 40 years and nearly all the growth was due to immigration.

The west could drasically reduce carbon emissions with a reduction in immigration and population and would have nearly stable growth in the USA with a moratorium on immigration.

[Bohemund]

This is just a hippy dream. The only serious energy is from coal and oil. It is harsh, I know.

The wind energy is not viable.

[borregio1986]

u obviously know nothing about wind energy huh. the ones i just finished building were Vestas 3.5MW in Iowa. 62 of them can power about 50,000 homes and are expected to last 20-30 years.

[DrnkSqrrlProductions]

Totally awesome, if I get burnt out from IT, im going into wind industry. Its fascinated me for years

[definca]

at :52 " over 15 million units of green electricity - enough to run over 4600 homes a year" wtf?

Do they mean over 4600 UNITS enough to run 15million homes? hope so or thats just nuts.

[jmh11962]

I think what they mean is all 3 units combined produce 15 million kilowatt hours....

[oOxOZZIExOo]

incredible.

[ziemniaczek963]

Enercon shit...

[scudlington]

Eco'...You didn't get back to me...

[ecotricity]

Wasn't sure if you had finished ;-)

[scudlington]

yes. I finished long ago.

[1888junkteam]

excellent work!

[GroovyVideo2]

I have been getting my power from a wind turbine

for over 10 yrs-- my power bill was $23 last month-

wind power is Awesome -

[acidtrashy]

What are you paying in hidden taxes for them?

[rcrob923]

the subsidies for coal and nuclear are much geater than for the wind industry.

[ElectrasolAdvanced]

Great video! Nice music also. What's the price tag on one of these things? (not including constuction)

[GreenEnergyToday]

Well i'm glad that you've decided to build a wind turbine on your own. You will save tons og money in electric bills.

Anyone who's interested in building one can feel free to cotact me.

[acidtrashy]

And collect a big fat subsidy cheque.

[TravvyG]

Where can I get Verticial Wind Turbines in Australia? and How much do they cost eg $5000 for a 2kW? I wonna least cut back my Power Bill by 80% or even more if possible =)

[fluxgenerator]

They make it look so easy !

[perfectimage100]

I may have a brilliant suggestion to those who have wind turbines which are near their homes or being built. Buy boxes of small mirror-squares, see, and start to glue them to the turbine-probably using a very strong adhesive-and work your way up the turbine, or along the shaft if it is being constructed. The mirrors reflect light and so the eyesore may be taken out of your sight, like the perception filter on the T.A.R.D.I.S.

[keifer33comets]

But, they employ many of us, including me in the near future. It is one industry that is actually booming and showing growth right now in today's terrible economy. So I would appreciate if all you hippies that asked for a cleaner form energy would show us some respect and deal with it. Beggers can't be choosers.

[keropberberian]

i love u guys

[54spiritedwill54]

amazing ! Those things are freaking huge!

[liberapedia]

Yeah you can see them on the from the Avon Bridge.

[esportosa]

Wow! Awsome video!!

[darkpheonix262]

cool vid, you should check out mine. its a turbine construction at Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari NM, tallest class room in the world

[RehmanAbubakr]

Not bad, not bad. Seriously. Very nice.

[windmillman101]

I love the music!nice video!

[buzharley]

Noone is saying that wind turbines are the answer. It's just part of the answer. I also admit that there are problems with it like 'scudlington' said. In fact the turbines actually use a small amount of energy when there isn't any wind. However wind turbines recover the energy used to manufacture, install, and run them after only 4 or 5 months. Coal plants never achieve this. So, WTs have flaws but they are greatly overshadowed by the benefits of putting them up.

[soylentgreenb]

"However wind turbines recover the energy used to manufacture, install, and run them after only 4 or 5 months."

Who cares?

A significant fraction is simply flushed down the toilet(offpeak, coal plants don't shut down) or eaten up by spinning reserve. For each kWh of wind power you need 1-2 kWh of natural gas; NG is expensive and difficult to transport.

The grid is not a "bank", hell, it's not even a connected graph. Transmission, not generation, is the hard part and wind makes it much worse.

[scudlington]

Excellent! I look forward to it.

[jeskao3]

this is one sign of how amazing the world is going to coming together to bring new energy resources in to power lines, to help off set our carbon output. Just as much fuel is used to bring all that smelly coal with it needs to go to produce power, stop thinking so far inside the box, invest in something that will last for longer than the short sighted foreseeable future we all like to live in

[scudlington]

Just one more thing before I get off me soap box. I'm not 'anti environment' or do I like to be labelled a 'denier' (as if we were somehow back in the days of the Spanish inquisition.) Nothing depresses me more than the destruction of our natural habitat, (particularly the great rainforests) but if you really believe that building windmills will somehow help the polar bears or prevent New York being 20ft under then you really are living in cloud cuckoo land.

[scudlington]

(Renewables obligation). This states that each provider must generate a certain percentage of their electricity mainly by the above means. They can't, because even though we are now in charge of the weather we still can't make the wind blow when we need it, consequently they are fined (taxed) and dutifully pass this on in full to us mugs...marvellous. This is all now set to get far worse. A couple of months ago Gordo triumphantly announced that he was going to save the world by spending...

[scudlington]

...sorry to go on...because the 'consensus' is that everyone agrees that we are now somehow in charge of the worlds weather. Clearly bananas but to governments and certain sectors of private enterprise a money making opportunity made in heaven. That old chestnut 'they'll tax us for the air we breathe' is already with us. My families last electricity bill was 30% higher than it should have been. 30% on top of excessive profiteering on a necessity by a nifty little EU directive called the RO

[scudlington]

The interesting thing is that our government knows this but because the debate about 'climate change' is now apparently over, our great Scottish leader and his henchmen now feel they have a vote winning opportunity to commit the country to what will eventually prove to be a catastrophically expensive act of vandalism to our beautiful countryside. Most do not realise that this is one of the main factors behind our ever increasing energy bills. It is never reported by the BBC or seldomly discussed

[scudlington]

Saving 13000 tons of evil carbon every year...Sounds impressive and scary at the same time. What? 13000 tons of gas? that must be like half the worlds atmosphere or something. In reality though it is utterly insignificant. Human breath alone accounts for approx' 6 MILLION tons every DAY. We are not told the truth about windmills and most other supposedly 'green' methods of power generation. They are products of a new political agenda that is going to cost us way more than we can afford...

[visionscope50]

I see trucks hauling blades alot lately down the roads.

[bodybager]

Look at this process and ask yourself how much diesel fuel was REQUIRED for the transportation, construction of the footings, and erection of the turbine.

Now imagine how difficult it would be if it were all done by hand without diesel powered machinery.

We'd better start using the oil we have left for installation of renewable energy infrastructure because when oil is $1000 per barrel (and that day will come within 20 years), these turbines will be VERY EXPENSIVE to install!

[ecotricity]

Nope - not if we were to use electricity generated from existing turbines rather than oil ;-)

[bodybager]

@ecotricity Don't get me wrong, I am all for turbines everywhere they can be built. But at least here in the States, we don't have battery/electric operated heavy equipment. The technology for that has existed for a very long time, but they are just not being produced. What I am saying is that we should build as many of these as we can NOW, while it's cheaper. This type of electric construction equipment will come with a premium price, like any new product.

[sopues]

@ecotricity Exactly. I hate when people shoot down green technology because they *today* also happen to use diesel in some part of they lifecycle. Shouldn't we simply work on convert the diesel to bio-diesel and eventually EVs? Yes, it might not happen immediately but I am sure it will.

[WockneysRedBarrel]

@bodybager - For a 2MW turbine operating for 20 years "the energy use is paid back in 0.40 year [146 days], or 2% of a 20 year lifetime".

- "During its lifetime, the wind turbine [2MW, operating for 20 years] allows us to recover nearly 31 times the environmental contamination caused by its manufacture, start-up, operation and decommissioning.

SOURCE: Martinez et al, 2009, Renewable Energy, Volume 34

[Redshift21]

According to who you believe the world has reached "peak oil" or will reach it within our lifetimes, energy, goods and services are going to increase in cost unless we bite the bullet and follow a much more aggressive renewable energy policy here in the UK.

[starwarsgeek8]

those things are HUGE! wouldn't it be better to put up more smaller types, at a similar cost?

[sonofhendrix]

look how they try to build huge turbines so they can hoard and sell the electricity.

Build a smaller one in your garden and you can have electricity of your own for FREE!

[markanthonyartist]

outstanding//

[jfabby]

The guys worked realy hard to get these turbines built in tough conditions, Windcon Energy Services is presently erecting turbines in the UK, USA and Canada. We are constantly recruiting experienced technicians worldwide who like to travel around the world and will be part of the team to erect over 2000MW of clean energy by next year.

[Songbreeze123]

those are so big, its almost scary. it almost entrances you to watch them standing tall and spinning slowly..it creeps me out and awes me at the same time!

[onlyhisdragonfly]

that's cool i stacked out suzlons. Yout next vid should show the guy calling it in. especially the nacelle and rotor.

[ecotricity]

Hi - thanks for the comments all!

In answer to the question about the music:

Dreamtime - Uberzone (from the album called "Faith in the Future")

Cheers

[windpowerrocks]

My wind videos are a funny response to those who opppose wind power...

[BRITinKY]

I could see those from my flat when I lived in Bristol the one on the way to London is amazing aswell I think it runs the "green park"

[gangrelsurf]

Those things are freaking huge!

[Matt0401]

Ya I know. You never really realize just how big they are until you see some cranes and people working with them to put things into perspective!

[joicemedia]

good video, thanks. Audio track name??

[Syst10]

amazing

[andacious]

I too would like to know who did the music. Please post if you know it. Great video.

[poundernator]

what's the music on this video, one word "amazing"

[ukrainiangirl16]

wow