Wind generators
Wind generators or wind turbines, either singly or in arrays called ‘wind farms’, use propeller blades to catch the wind. The spinning blades act as turbines to generate electricity, which can either be fed into the national grid, or harvested locally through storage in power cells (batteries). To offset the heavy investment necessary for their manufacture and installation, they must be positioned to catch the strongest and steadiest winds possible; in a mountainous country like Greece, this usually means along the tops of mountain and hill ranges. For the same reason, the trend is for each generation of wind turbines to be taller, larger and more massive than their predecessors; in future, they are projected to reach 250 m tall including the rotor.. There is a continued, fierce and as yet unresolved argument over whether the environmental cost of manufacturing and installing wind turbines (their carbon footprint) outweighs their environmental benefits. However, two factors about wind turbines are incontestable: the first is that they are currently being heavily promoted by investors worldwide, and the second is that that nobody has so far addressed the considerable problem of safely decommissioning these behemoths, which have an average lifetime of less than 20 years.
Latest Posts
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Germany: Mutiny in the Land of Wind Turbines
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Experts urge rethink of wind farm plans
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Wind turbine causes large bushfire
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Fires cause of wind farm failure
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Wind farm projects at risk
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Worn-out turbines could cost billions
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The transportation problem
The most cursory glance at a map of Kythera and the slightest familiarity with the nature of the terrain makes...