The World’s Largest Wind Turbine Has Been Switched On::It’s turbo time.

  • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    According to the corporation, just one of these turbines should be able to produce enough electricity to power 36,000 households of three people each for one year.

    These types of statements always trip me up. Why one year? If it’s producing that amount of energy in that same year, shouldn’t it just be “…power 36,000 households of three people.”?

    • anteaters@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Because it does not run at the same capacity 24/7. Sometimes it produces energy for 0 households and sometimes for 50,000. Total production in one year corresponds to the yearly consumption of 36,000 households.

      • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        So they could just as accurately say “…power 36,000 households” And then fill in anything afterwards. “for 1 year”, “for 5 years”, “for the life of the turbine”. Or just leave it at 36,000 households. The “1 year” is so meaninglessly superfluous it annoys me. I mean, everyone knows they don’t produce power 24/365. That fact is always one of the disingenuous anti-renewable energy talking points.

        • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          In engineering, it pretty common to calculate things over a 1 year period in order to relate cost calculations to company finances. Most companies calculate their finances annually, so calculating for yearly average energy production makes any comparison easier than other arbitrary periods of time.

        • anteaters@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          But it’s not superflouos? The number is apparently based on yearly average. Not on 5 year or over the total lifetime. And it does not produce only for 36,000 households but likely for many more. I don’t see why thin seems so meaningless to you or annoys you so much.

            • anteaters@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              How should I know? Maybe it contains downtime for maintenance or sth? Point is these numbers are based on yearly average so why write about 5 years?

              • Morphit @feddit.uk
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                1 year ago

                How should I know?

                Exactly. Why add a time unit if it doesn’t communicate anything? It produces a year’s worth of energy per year, by definition. They could just quote the average power and be done but they tacked on “per year” for no reason.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Does make me wonder if they mean an average. Like if the lifespan of the turbine is 50 years or whatever, so instead of saying 720 homes for 50 years they say 36,000 for one year to make it sound more impressive?

      • Decr@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Going by their estimate of 36.000 households and the Dutch average yearly household usage of 3.500KWh that would be 126.000 MWh per year. One turbine is rated for a continuous output of 16MW which assuming it runs continuously, would give you 16x24x365= 140.160 MWh in a year.

        I would assume they actually mean 36.000 households yearly assuming average weather conditions.

    • evatronic@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      They’re leaving out an important part of the claim.

      I can set up some piezoelectric things in my office chair such that when I sit my fat ass down it generates a small electrical charge. I can say that my ass can generate enough electricity to power a million homes for 10 years, assuming I don’t tell you how long it takes to generate that power, which would be on the order of decades, if not centuries, if not longer.

      I’d wager someone saw the average energy output for the expected service lifetime of the turbine, then was like, “How much energy does one 3-person household use?” and started playing with Excel until they got a good mix of time and # of households for the press release.

      • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Generally people compare the energy produced within the same period of time. There’s no need to add additional context since it’s pretty standard to expect that.

    • Chris Ely@fosstodon.org
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      1 year ago

      One eVinci micro reactor is enough for 5,000 homes a year and doesn’t depend on weather.

      So, instead of manufacturing each of these giant blades that might last 20 years, we should instead be manufacturing three microreactors that are much smaller and easier to transport.

      @sin_free_for_00_days
      @L4s