Wind Turbines/etc

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Wind Turbine Summary

Miguel Maldonado

-Wind power has been used since 3500 BC with ships with the modern 3 blade turbine used today.

-Wind power generation for the United States is largest in Texas & Iowa with the full US capacity being 122500 MW.

-Wind is created with a differential in heating on the earth’s surface. Air is heated faster on land, mountains, and deserts.

-The highest wind speeds are in the Rocky Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, and Sierra Nevada Mountains.

-California’s wind speeds are in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, and San Bernardino Mountains. Wind is funneled between mountain ranges going from high to low pressure affecting wind creation, speed, and its patterns.

Reuben Saldivar

-Wind energy changes hourly, seasonally and varies where electrical demand is higher, eg. US states like California and Montana

-Best places for wind turbines would be where the annual average wind speed is 9 mph or 4 m/s. Preferred places for placement of wind turbines would be open plains, water, smooth, rounded hills and gaps in between mountains

-Top regions for high wind turbines would be Asia  & Oceania, Europe, North America, Central and South America, Africa, Eurasia and the Middle East.

-Top countries include China (406 billion kWh), United States (295 billion kWh), Germany (123 billion kWh), India (66 billion kWh) and the United Kingdom (64 billion kWh).

Alyssa Pekarek:

Wind Farming:

-Wind farming: grouping of wind turbines in one area.

-Wind farms are placed in areas that are consistent and may have less turbulent airflow.

-Can be based on land or they can be based out at sea.

-At sea they will either be based on platforms or on pillars coming from the seabed.

Pros of wind turbines:

-The source of energy will be clean and renewable.

-The land space is used efficiently.

-The operation costs of the farms are low.

-Most turbine components are recyclable.

Josh Sullivan:

-There are multiple types of wind turbines the, they can be broken down into the basic categories of horizontal axis turbines and vertical access turbings

-There are many factors taken into account when deciding which type of wind turbine you want some of these factors being location and budget for the contract

-Wind turbines involve a fair amount of aerodynamics they use either drag or wind passing over the blades to create kinetic energy which is then used along with a generator to create electricity

-A series of shaft and gears is used to create this kinetic energy

-Adjusting the angle of the blades, the shape of the blades, the material the blades are made from, and the number of blades all affect the amount of drag

-Over the years the size of wind turbines has increased dramatically, which in turn allows the wind turbine to produce more kinetic energy and electricity

-The cost of wind turbines themselves can vary depending on factors such as number of turbines ordered, the cost of financing, construction contracts, location of the project, and many other factors

-In general the cost of a typical average sized commercial grade wind turbine is about $2.6 million dollars-$4 million dollars

-Maintenance on turbines usually involve fixing the generator or the system of gears, and costs around $50,000 a year

Andy Garcia

-Offshore turbines are higher cost than onshore turbines but are able to have bigger blades to compensate

-Wind Turbines are built to sustain extreme weather like category 4 hurricanes and are programmed to turn off in 50+ mph winds

-Fish habitats thrive long term due to lack of fishing in the area

-Bird deaths are a huge concern when choosing where to place wind turbines and is something that is taken into consideration

-Wind Turbines are only as reliable as the wind is. Wind is predictable but not constant

-The blades on the wind turbines are not recyclable despite most of the turbine being recyclable.

-Noise levels are about as loud as a refrigerator at the closest allowed proximity (300m) to a house

-Upfront costs of constructing wind turbines is expensive but has been getting cheaper over the years

Self critique

• Spend too long focusing on the specifics of engineering
• Should have spent more time discussing the different types of turbines and the practicality of each
• Could have gone into more detail discussing the ratio between the size of the turbine and the amount of revenue that it will bring in, or the cost per Megawatt per hour of using a wind turbine
• Discussion about the aerodynamic of the blades of the wind turbine was random and somewhat unorganized, some information presented may have been inaccurate
• Could have discussed other parts of the wind turbine not just the nacelle and the blades

• Little info about costs
• Order of information were somewhat questionable
• Should have discussed recyclability of blades and turbine more
• Needed more info on wind turbines globally
• Needed more information on the power output of the turbines
• Mention planned offshore wind farms from U.S. and Denmark

• Information on the history of wind power was not as informative as it could have been.
• Including wind capacities in the US along with history does not make sense, it would have been better to include this information in the next couple slides.
• Wind creation was only explained locally, and the planetary formation of wind would have added to the understanding of wind creation.
• The explanation of wind creation could have been fleshed out more in general, kind of went through it too quickly.
• Should have explained that the graphs were mostly referencing wind speeds.
• For the California wind power potential, should have discussed some more potential wind places in the state other than the one funneling portion of the map.

• Could have gone into more detail about why companies would choose to have farms.
• Went into more detail about costs.
• Talked about energy output per turbine and as a farm.
• Described in more detail what the pros meant individually instead of just reading off the screen.
• Incorporated more life examples, not just one.

• Could have added more context on top regions who use wind energy the most
• Should have included which countries use the most energy to offset the percentage of energy consumed by each country
• Included a current 2019 graph on energy consumption in each region and country
• Explained more on which nation has with kind of turbines they have, whether onshore or offshore turbines
• China was top country who uses more wind energy, but they are the top consumer so could have used some data on that 

Critique    36, 69, 25, 45, 72, 42

Miguel’s

· Talked about history of wind and how wind works(not critique just summary) (as noted….this is not a critique)

· Dry information, but good information – not entertaining or engaging but seemed solidly researched.

· Moved through slides FAST, made it difficult to follow.

Josh’s

· Talked about wind turbines, noted different types, talked about issues with turbines and how they work(also not critique just summary) this needs to be included in the slides and be specific…which slides were difficult to follow, etc)

Miguel’s history of wind

• Dry information, but good information – not entertaining or engaging but seemed solidly researched.
• Moved through slides FAST, made it difficult to follow.

Josh’s issues with turbines and how they work

• Had a decent hold of slide speed, used images, had a bit of a tripping over word issue (issues with words were prevalent enough to be noticeable but not presentation breaking)

Ruben’s

• Talked about cost, heavily numerical section(not critique just summary)
• Did a lot of stating facts – good research but really lacked a narrative as to why we care.

Andy’s

• Talked about and dismissed cons (not critique just summary)
• Only person who talked about things not on the slides(extrapolated past the slides)(THIS IS A LOVLEY THING TO DO)

Alyssa’s

• Went over pros of wind which pros did you appreciate
• Spoke clearly.

Overall:

• Could have used a little more practice.

• Very informative
• Final slide (pros and cons) seemed to try to tie things together but had a poor transition which was initially confusing. (Good idea poor execution)
• Slides kept a consistent style.
• Lacked an overall structure for the presentation- didn’t help with pros and cons.
• Would have been smoother if one person did all the pros and cons slide.

Wind   16, 19, 75, 30

● Very in depth presentation, presenting a lot of numbers and statistics to back up the

statements.

● Some sections, such as the history part, were a little heavy on reading off the slides

instead of adding information not presented.

● Areas for wind potential was interesting, but got a little repetitive and could have been

cut down a bit.

● Could have added more details on which countries are using wind turbines the most but

also using the most energy

● Really liked the explanation of the types of turbines (didn’t know there were so many

types). Would have been nice to hear the pros/cons of each.

● Good description of how the technical workings of the turbine, made sense and was

descriptive without being too dry and technical.

● Consistent use of good photos and graphics to add to what is being presented on each

slide.

● Nice comparison of on-shore vs off-shore wind and nice overview arguments against

wind power as well. Really liked the rebuttal to some of the complaints, shows that you

researched these enough to show why this source of clean energy is good despite the

possible cons.

● The organization could have been a little better, seems like some things (where wind is

strongest/where its best to place turbines and arguments against/pros and cons) could

have been combined or placed together for better flow.

● Liked how past homework problems were referred to during the presentation

● The arguments against wind power were great, liked that they pointed out that the

devaluement of homes is actually not true.

● Appreciated how they recognized how expensive the generators and gearboxes could

be for a wind turbine.

● Good use of the images in the slides, they were referred to a couple of times during the

presentation

● Really liked how they included that the wind blades could not be recycled, that’s

important and something a lot of people would not know.

● Presenters knew their subjects really well