Why arent some windmills turning on the Altamont in California when others are?

Question

How do they maintain them?

Do they wait until the wind stops blowing?

Answer 1

Besides the other answers, the wind isn't uniform. Most are designed to operate with wind in any direction. Some are simply better constructed. Some are designed for efficiency in higher winds since the energy output is so much higher. I'd be surprised if any are ever shut down for load control.

Maintenance could be done even in high winds. You could electrically or mechanically stop the rotation. You could simply turn them 90 degrees so the wind doesn't turn them. But it's much more difficult and dangerous, so it's seldom done.

Answer 2

Haha, I know exactly what you're talking about. I live 20 miles northwest of there.

Well, I've seen that too, and I've thought of two possible explanations:

1. They don't need to have all of the windmills running at the same time, so they turn some off.

2. They're not all oriented in the same direction. Some days, the wind will blow one direction, and spin some of the windmills. On other days, the wind will blow in the other direction, and it'll spin some of the other windmills.

Answer 3

For repairs etc windmills may be kept idle. By tethering the blades one can keep it idle up to reasonable speeds of wind. Once they stop the blade it can be worked on. No need to wait till the wind stops

Answer 4

I new a guy who did a lot of repair work at a large windmill farm and he said it was due to maintenance issues.

Answer 5

I know when ever the hill burn up around tem any of the windmills in the fires path need to be rebuilt.

Answer 6

they are operated on a specific wind speed, and the different styles of machineare set to startup at different windspeed..

they also have an extremely high incidence of breakdown, so some of them may be down for work/maintenence

Answer 7

down for maintenance

and for "load-control"