Dutch Gemini windpark opens.

[PA5COR]

Dutch officials have opened what is being billed as one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, with 150 turbines (https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/gallery/2017/may/08/renewables-wind-energy-turbines-tech-kites-drones-in-pictures) spinning far out in the North Sea.

Over the next 15 years the Gemini windpark, which lies some 85km (53 miles) off the northern coast of the Netherlands (https://www.theguardian.com/world/netherlands), will meet the energy needs of about 1.5 million people.


At full tilt the windpark has a generating capacity of 600 megawatts and will help supply 785,000 Dutch households with renewable energy, according to the company.
“We are now officially in the operational stage,” the company’s managing director Matthias Haag said, celebrating the completion of a project first conceived in 2010.
The €2.8bn ($3bn) project is a collaboration between the Canadian independent renewable energy company Northland Power, wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Wind Power, Dutch maritime contractor Van Oord and waste processing company HVC.
It was “quite a complex” undertaking, Haag said, “particularly as this windpark lies relatively far offshore ... so it took quite a lot of logistics”.


Gemini would contribute about 13% of the country’s total renewable energy supply and about 25% of its wind power, he added.
It would help reduce emissions of carbon-dioxide emissions, among the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, by 1.25m tonnes, the company says..


The Dutch government has committed to ensuring 14% of its energy comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar power by 2020, and 16% by 2023, with the aim of being carbon neutral by 2050.
Gemini “is seen as a stepping stone” in the Netherlands and has “shown that a very large project can be built on time, and in a very safe environment”, Haag said.

[KG4CGC]

I guess if the US isn't going to do anything about polluting ... *sigh*

[PA5COR]

More windparks are planned, cheaper even because more firms offer larger windturbines, and placing them became cheaper.
We here still have a way to go, but the future looks better with this news, some countries here now almost have 100% gren wind turbine energy.
And price per KW/H the same or cheaper as fossil fuel like natural gas coal etc.
Reducing CO2is important, as well all other for people dangerous gasses.
Just in the UK bad air quality from diesel engines cause 40.000 deaths per year, as well asthma, and other preventable illnesses.
It's a choice a country must make, we do our parrt here, with Trump there and repuglicans there? no way.

[WØTKX]

Despite the political "winds" here, wind and solar power continue to grow.

No subsidies needed anymore, it is just a good investment.

Imagine that.

BTW, I "manage" from the technical side multiple solar sites here at work.
That is one of the most interesting and enjoyable parts of my job. :giggity:

[NA4BH]

Solar farms are popping up all around here. They don't have blades that "Whopper-Chopper" birds when they fly by.

[KG4CGC]

I wouldn't expect blades, eh?

[PA5COR]

The effect the blades have on birds is overstated by the oil lobby.
more bird deaths occur flying into buildings or getting killed with traffic etc.
Solar panels privately installed here is quite large, as is heatpumps for warming the house.

[K0RGR]

Well, Minnesota has over 12,000 lakes, not the 10,000 on the license plates, but we don't talk about it, because we don't like to brag. However we have a goal of 25% renewable energy by the year 2025, and we're already at 22%, so they're talking about raising the goal. The city I live in us undergoing a multi-billion dollar redevelopment, primarily funded by the Mayo Clinic and other private concerns, but with a government commitment of $500 Million to build needed infrastructure. The city has a goal of 100% renewable energy. We have big wind farms all around us and solar is growing very rapidly, in spite of continued interference from the fossil fuel industry and their allies.

[PA5COR]

More states in the USA realize that green energy is on par or cheaper as what they use now and switching over, as happens here].
In the Eu large investments in infrastructure is made, so that over large distances excess electricity can be transported to places where there is a shortage between country's as well.
Mixing the different green sources, hydro, solar wind, geo heat etc makes it reliable, even from Iceland geoheat is used to make electricity and transported by undrwater cables to the EU, as we have cable under the channel to the UK.
DC to limit losses though.

[NA4BH]

The effect the blades have on birds is overstated by the oil lobby.
more bird deaths occur flying into buildings or getting killed with traffic etc.
Solar panels privately installed here is quite large, as is heatpumps for warming the house.

I couldn't agree more.

Do your heat pumps utilize the tubing that is buried in the ground that the air circulates through to heat and cool? A friend was going to install this type system in his house, many years ago. We lost contact so I don't know if he did it and/or how it worked out for him.

[NA4BH]

Well, Minnesota has over 12,000 lakes, not the 10,000 on the license plates, but we don't talk about it, because we don't like to brag. However we have a goal of 25% renewable energy by the year 2025, and we're already at 22%, so they're talking about raising the goal. The city I live in us undergoing a multi-billion dollar redevelopment, primarily funded by the Mayo Clinic and other private concerns, but with a government commitment of $500 Million to build needed infrastructure. The city has a goal of 100% renewable energy. We have big wind farms all around us and solar is growing very rapidly, in spite of continued interference from the fossil fuel industry and their allies.

Eddie and I counted them there's only 9,999 lakes. :whistle:

[KG4CGC]

I couldn't agree more.

Do your heat pumps utilize the tubing that is buried in the ground that the air circulates through to heat and cool? A friend was going to install this type system in his house, many years ago. We lost contact so I don't know if he did it and/or how it worked out for him.

Heat pump or geothermal or same thing? Science, maaaan.

[PA5COR]

Some have piping in the ground specially new build homes, where ground works have to be done anyway.
Existing build homes have a specialised drilling company sink a pipe 80 meters deep or deeper ( 240 feet) and use that as heat source, te deeper you go the warmer the underground is.
Drilling is more expensive as just put piping in the ground, but in the end it still is cheaper, though the roi is longer.
Some new systems have just an outdoor unit that uses the outdoor air as source, even when it freezes it seems to be able to supply heat.
Seen one of those installed in a neighborhood near me last year, asked the peeps what it was, thought it was a newfangled airco....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump



I couldn't agree more.

Do your heat pumps utilize the tubing that is buried in the ground that the air circulates through to heat and cool? A friend was going to install this type system in his house, many years ago. We lost contact so I don't know if he did it and/or how it worked out for him.

[WZ7U]

Our old electric hot water heater decided to go tits up on us a couple weeks ago during college finals. One option we had available was a hot water heater that works like a heat pump but for heating just water. Looked like a great idea till I realized all the retrofitting of the area would be way out of budget even though the unit itself would've only run about $550 after incentives. So the old style went back in and since this technically isn't my house I gave it no more thought except that I thought it a good technology to implement. Next house....yeah.

[PA5COR]

Investment only pays off if it is your own home, and you will keep living there for some time.
Selling a house here comes with a energy certificate, depending on how well the house is insulated, and other stuff installed to keep energy costs and use down.

With solar panels, hat pump and some warm water panels on the roof most here can be close to 0 energy users, depending on the solar panels and number of them they even deliver energy back into the mains.

My energy use cost me 100 euro a month, gas and electricity, so my r.o.i. would be too long, and the house is rented as well.
So i save in other means, getting as AA++ energy efficient stuff - see plasma out, UHD LCD in, and next is the washing machine when it goes tits up.
Looking at the weekly use i got the electricity use back from 4000 KW/H to 2500 KW/H a year.

[K0RGR]

We have a few people using geothermal here. Most installations involve drilling multiple wells, which is obviously not inexpensive. The ground freezes here to a depth of 8 feet, which makes shallow buried systems unusable. But one friend of mine who has geothermal brags about how small his energy bills are, with solar providing nearly all the required energy, even in our very cold winters.

[ka8ncr]

You mean this thing, Cor? (Kinda hard to see from 18,000 feet). But they stretch out in large patches.


Edit: A bit off topic, but the vertical climb of the Airbus 330-300 is impressive.

[PA5COR]

Lota of clouds....
And a large jet engine ;)

[KG4CGC]

♫ bingo jet had a light on ♪

[ka8ncr]

Lota of clouds....
And a large jet engine ;)

Look near the engine, and off in the distance too.

[PA5COR]

Didn't see it first, then saw the sea placed wind turbines.
Something like that, far enough from the shore you can't see them and strategically placed in a spot that has the most wind.
The latest wind turbines get up to 400+ feet high, and can generate each 9 MW, rotor diameters up to 180 meters...
http://www.windpowermonthly.com/10-biggest-turbines
8 to 9 MW is enough to power 10.000 homes.
The world's largest wind turbine is being constructed in Denmark following the completion of the enormous rotor blades that will power it.
Just one of its three blades stretches more than 290 feet and when complete it will be able to provide power for a small town of more than 10,000 homes.
The Adwen AD8-180 will stand on a mast more than 295 feet (90 metres) tall when its installed, engineers say.