Why are wind farms put where they are?

Question

wind farms in the uk

Answer 1

cos its windy there

Answer 2

It's a wild stab in the dark of an answer but maybe they put them where they do because they are fairly windy places??

Answer 3

Governmental policy is generally in favour of increasing the use of renewable energy sources. The United Kingdom government, for example, has a target for 10% of domestic energy consumption to be generated from renewable sources by the year 2010. A number of on- and off-shore wind farms are currently going through planning permission at the moment. Recently an onshore farm was opened at Cefn Croes in West Wales's Cambrian Mountains. In May 2006, operational wind farms in the UK comprised an installed capacity of 1693 MW, in Portugal 1188 MW, in France 918 MW and in the Republic of Ireland 496 MW. The planned 322 MW wind farm south of Glasgow will be the biggest wind farm in Europe. The €350 million farm is ordered by Scottish Power and the 140 wind turbines are to be delivered by Siemens.

Wind farms in different countries yield different amounts of electricity, because of differences in prevailing wind patterns, siting of the turbines, and the fact that early turbine designs were considerably less efficient and capable of adapting quickly to changes in wind direction and speed. For example, an Oxford University study of the wind over the past 35 years found that UK turbines would have produced 27% of their maximum possible energy, compared with 20% in Denmark and 15% in Germany.

As a general rule, wind generators are practical where the average wind speed is 10 mph (16 km/h) or greater. Obviously, meteorology plays an important part in determining possible locations for wind parks, though it has great accuracy limitations. Meteorological wind data is not usually sufficient for accurate siting of a large wind power project. An 'ideal' location would have a near constant flow of non-turbulent wind throughout the year and would not suffer too many sudden powerful bursts of wind. An important turbine siting factor is access to local demand or transmission capacity.

The wind blows faster at higher altitudes because of the reduced influence of drag of the surface (sea or land) and the reduced viscosity of the air. The increase in velocity with altitude is most dramatic near the surface and is affected by topography, surface roughness, and upwind obstacles such as trees or buildings. Typically, the increase of wind speeds with increasing height follows a logarithmic profile that can be reasonably approximated by the wind profile power law, using an exponent of 1/7th, which predicts that wind speed rises proportionally to the seventh root of altitude. Doubling the altitude of a turbine, then, increases the expected wind speeds by 10% and the expected power by 34% (calculation: increase in power = (2.0)^(3/7) – 1 = 34%).

Wind farms or wind parks often have many turbines installed. Since each turbine extracts some of the energy of the wind, it is important to provide adequate spacing between turbines to avoid excess energy loss. Where land area is sufficient, turbines are spaced three to five rotor diameters apart perpendicular to the prevailing wind, and five to ten rotor diameters apart in the direction of the prevailing wind, to minimize efficiency loss. The "wind park effect" loss can be as low as 2% of the combined nameplate rating of the turbines.

Utility-scale wind turbine generators have minimum temperature operating limits which restrict the application in areas that routinely experience temperatures less than −20°C. Wind turbines must be protected from ice accumulation, which can make anemometer readings inaccurate and which can cause high structure loads and damage. Some turbine manufacturers offer low-temperature packages at a few percent extra cost, which include internal heaters, different lubricants, and different alloys for structural elements, to make it possible to operate the turbines at lower temperatures. If the low-temperature interval is combined with a low-wind condition, the wind turbine will require station service power, equivalent to a few percent of its output rating, to maintain internal temperatures during the cold snap.

Answer 4

They are put in unpopulated windy areas where else would they be?

Answer 5

That's where the wind is!

Answer 6

cause it's windy there !