J.A.W. wrote: ↑08 Aug 2021, 03:43
Greg Locock wrote: ↑08 Aug 2021, 01:57
Off shore turbines are far more maintenance intensive than on shore ones, annual maintenance is a significant cost for land based:
Operation and maintenance (O&M) costs constitute a sizeable share of the total annual costs of a wind turbine. For a new turbine, O&M costs may easily make up 20-25 per cent of the total levelised cost per kWh produced over the lifetime of the turbine.
and more so for offshore O&M ~ roughly 4 times higher . This is compensated for to some extent by the higher duty cycle of the offshore units, making their output more valuable. Cap costs are higher obviously as there is no local grid to tap into, and foundations are far more expensive.
Correct Greg, & furthermore, the disposal costs of large non-recyclable parts of de-commissioned
wind units are also becoming an issue, now that many are rapidly reaching 'use by date' status.
Like bird murder, recyclability is in reality a very minor issue that has been completely blown up by antagonists of windmills.
The material is pretty inert, and as such quite suitable for landfilling with hardly any impact. Similar to what is being done with decommissioned aircraft. Noone complains about discarding aircraft this way, yet when its done with windmill blades, some act like its the onset of the apocalypse. The discarded material is only a very minor part of the windmill life cycle. And also, waste management in fossil operations isn't great. Many decommissioned mining and power generation, heavily polluted, are just abandoned. Let alone the pollution that operational facilities discharge into water and atmosphere.
And yet, thanks to the negative framing, even though for all quantitative reasons its an absolute non-issue, manufacturers are making great advances regarding production of blades with a better end of life outlook.