Wouldn't smaller wind power generators be more practical than those enormous ones that are ?

Question

springing up all over the country?

It just seems to me that if one of those big boys goes down it could be a problem. A number of smaller ones would allow one to break down without losing everything.

Answer 1

No, that's precisely why they use the big ones.

Answer 2

They are large because the power they can capture goes roughly as the square of the blade radius.  Even the largest wind turbine is tiny compared to a traditional (fossil fuel, nuclear, geothermal) power plant, so the impact to the power grid of one suddenly going offline is minimal.

Answer 3

You are right.. they would be more practical but they would be less efficient.

There are mechanical losses whenever motion is turned into electricity.  It is also necessary to 'embrace' as much air as possible.  The swept area of the blades produces more power when the blades are longer because they 'reach' more air. The losses are greater for a smaller machine (relative to the output power).

Their size is a compromise between having the largest possible swept area and the engineering challenges (and of course environmental concerns of appearance in the landscape, wind noise etc).

Answer 4

Wind speed increases as the 1.3 power of elevation (roughly), which suggests taller towers. But the cost of building them goes up at very nearly the same rate.

Many trade-offs for the engineers to play with.

Answer 5

It depends on how you measure it.

A buddy of mine in the construction industry has been researching 'green construction', since that's the direction his industry is headed.  He's found that on a small scale, wind power 'works better' than large scale.  I think it has to do with the overall efficiency of the power delivery, not just the efficiency of one unit.  (I would think that one big unit would, indeed, be more efficient in converting kinetic energy to electric, but in terms of OVERALL cost, smaller is more efficient.)

Answer 6

I believe that a bigger one would b better since yes if it did go down it woudl cause caos but i doubt it would it would be more effiect and cost effective than many smaller ones

Answer 7

i agree

Answer 8

I bet you are right. In a few years they will have perfected them and I bet there will be smaller and more efficient models.