Thread: The Hidden Costs of Installing Wind Turbines.

The Crookwell turbines are one of the oldest wind farms in Australia and are still operating Crookwell Wind Farm — Tilt Renewables we have a wind farm near our property and I believe that the going rate paid to land owners for a turbine is around $20K per turbine annually. There have been a couple of turbines on the cullerin range wind farm that have caught fire or lost a blade NSW Rural Fire Service crews contain blaze at Southern Tablelands turbine station - ABC News. People seem to make a fuss about the turbine blades and their disposal but that problem pales into insignificance when you compare it with the problem of disposing of tyres etc. A set of turbine blades would be about the same as the disposal of a set of tyres for a B double I reckon.

I am pretty amazed at the amount of hate directed a wind turbines given that they are generating clean energy. They aren't pretty but a quick look at the satellite pictures of Singleton NSW gives a picture of the impact of coal mining. Of course Nuclear would be equally as good but that's not about to happen.

Regards,
Tote

Originally Posted by Tins

If you had ever been inside a major power station you wouldn’t say that. Very few things in there are short term.

I actually worked for a large organization, and we had not one but two power stations, both of which I worked at on multiple occasions, one on each side of a large city and the maintenance on them was huge, each of them had a village for staff to live at, mostly social and sporting types as they had a country club, tennis courts, swimming pool, sporting fields, etc. Then there was the heavy maintenance/repairs, every so often they'd have to take the rotor out of the gen set and pack it with tonnes of wood on a flatbed truck to stop the shaft bending and send it our workshops in town. In the end we just bought power from the nat'l grid and used our power stations as a bargaining chip only a running a few coal fired CCST's (closed cycle steam turbines) at a time.

A lot of stuff gets replaced during power station shut down work, like pumps, motors, cables, bearings, valves, instruments, etc Power Station Shutdown Jobs (with Salaries) 2023 | Indeed.com Australia

Originally Posted by Tote

The Crookwell turbines are one of the oldest wind farms in Australia and are still operating Crookwell Wind Farm — Tilt Renewables we have a wind farm near our property and I believe that the going rate paid to land owners for a turbine is around $20K per turbine annually. There have been a couple of turbines on the cullerin range wind farm that have caught fire or lost a blade NSW Rural Fire Service crews contain blaze at Southern Tablelands turbine station - ABC News. People seem to make a fuss about the turbine blades and their disposal but that problem pales into insignificance when you compare it with the problem of disposing of tyres etc. A set of turbine blades would be about the same as the disposal of a set of tyres for a B double I reckon.

I am pretty amazed at the amount of hate directed a wind turbines given that they are generating clean energy. They aren't pretty but a quick look at the satellite pictures of Singleton NSW gives a picture of the impact of coal mining. Of course Nuclear would be equally as good but that's not about to happen.

Regards,
Tote

There was a Wind Turbine at Shark Bay in the 90s. Cool to watch. It was Tiny by today's standards.

It is often a NIMBY thing. The cost of the transmission lines and other items at Crookwell wind farm are interesting

There is a Crookwell 2 "$149.088m" Link and a Crookwell 3 costing a similar amount. Number 3 is on just two farms/landholdings.

They all connect to 330volt High Transmission lines which cost a LOT per KM. They seem to be on or near a main NSW/VIC interconnection line. I could not find the payment per pole to the 2 farms.




Suspect it would be a good investment for income to the 2 farmers IF removal once decommissioning is included?????

Wind is fine with me when its impacts are considered and done with fair agreements. Not at all keen on dumping them in the huge Upwelling areas off shore. There is direct and indirect cost and benefits for everything!

Originally Posted by mrs

Because they think that it comes from the wind/sun, but they don't realise that there is a capital cost plus maintenance costs and a shortish life before it needs an update.

Yeah .... nah.

With most renewables there's bugger all input costs once the panels or turbines are constructed, and little maintenance either. That's why, since at least the early 2000s, infrastructure relating to fossil fuels - such as power stations - have been referred to as stranded assets. As a result you can't get finance for them, so they are, to use the industry term, "unbankable". In the absence of massive government subsidies I doubt that anyone would build a coal-powered power station these days.

Originally Posted by mrs

Plus, we keep forgetting we need a base load for when the wind doesn't blow (or blows too much) or the sun doesn't shine

Maybe, but that base load doesn't need to be coal-powered. Batteries and a wide distribution network.

As I've said before, the banks don't lend on renewables projects unless they've worked out that they're going to get their money back. It's not being funded by clueless hippies but very clever guys with MBAs.


A lot of these discussions remind me of what my parents told me the old people were saying when electricity came to our district in the 1940s .....

Originally Posted by Arapiles

Yeah .... nah.

With most renewables there's bugger all input costs once the panels or turbines are constructed, and little maintenance either. That's why, since at least the early 2000s, infrastructure relating to fossil fuels - such as power stations - have been referred to as stranded assets. As a result you can't get finance for them, so they are, to use the industry term, "unbankable". In the absence of massive government subsidies I doubt that anyone would build a coal-powered power station these days.



Maybe, but that base load doesn't need to be coal-powered. Batteries and a wide distribution network.

As I've said before, the banks don't lend on renewables projects unless they've worked out that they're going to get their money back. It's not being funded by clueless hippies but very clever guys with MBAs.


A lot of these discussions remind me of what my parents told me the old people were saying when electricity came to our district in the 1940s .....

Grid size batteries? Never going to occur. The Pumped Hydro 'battery' is really the only larger scale possible now.

""German government has agreed to provide €7.5bn of state guarantees to embattled renewables group Siemens Energy as part of a €15bn rescue package for the group as it weathers massive losses in it’s wind-turbine unit. The deal is vital to sustaining a €110bn portfolio of clean energy projects planned by the company Siemens Energy has said it is targeting €400mn of cost cuts at its struggling wind turbine business after huge losses forced it to take a €15bn government-backed bailout last month.
“We're making sure we are streamlining wherever possible,” said CEO Christian Bruch.


Shut down nuclear power plants, bail out failing renewables and build more coal power plants! German greens are a funny bunch!

Yes. Well when Bild, Germany's, and Europe's, largest circulation newspaper, turns on the Govt on immigration policy I would predict that the renewables push will be the next target. Germans are in for another cold winter with housing and fuel shortages looming. Bild has not been all that anti govt recently. I guess you could call them populist, but hey.....

Originally Posted by NavyDiver

Grid size batteries? Never going to occur. The Pumped Hydro 'battery' is really the only larger scale possible now.

""German government has agreed to provide €7.5bn of state guarantees to embattled renewables group Siemens Energy as part of a €15bn rescue package for the group as it weathers massive losses in it’s wind-turbine unit. The deal is vital to sustaining a €110bn portfolio of clean energy projects planned by the company Siemens Energy has said it is targeting €400mn of cost cuts at its struggling wind turbine business after huge losses forced it to take a €15bn government-backed bailout last month.
“We're making sure we are streamlining wherever possible,” said CEO Christian Bruch.[/B![/U]

As others have mentioned,it will be the end user that pays....