Early Repairs to 500 Wind Turbines Will Cost Millions

by Guest Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:34 pm

500 UK offshore wind turbines need vital repairs earlier than expected in an enormous renewable energy blunder which could cost more than £500 million. The turbines, operated by Ørsted and supplied by Siemens, need repairs to the leading edge of blades that eroded after only a few years at sea. At one wind farm off Duddon Sands, Cumbria, all 108 wind turbines have erosion problems, requiring removal and reconditioning. Repair entails the application of a rubber coating, meaning blades must be brought ashore. Costs including repair boat chartering and allowing for lost generation and income are estimated as around £1 million per turbine. Siemens have put aside half a billion quid to guarantee its commitments…

The Global Warming Policy Forum said:

“There is a lot more at stake here than the allocation of a painful repair bill. If this is a type failure… then it is a very expensively learned lesson. But if the need for these repairs is, as Siemens is apparently contending, just every day wear and tear, then this… will be strong evidence confirming long-held suspicions that developers and owners have greatly underestimated the normal cost of wind farm Operation and Maintenance (O&M).”

Let’s hope the taxpayer is counted out…

https://order-order.com/2018/02/27/early-repairs-500-uk-wind-turbines-will-cost-millions/

Well then this is not a viable energy solution to global warming

Better ideas are need than this or fossil fuels

by 'Wolfie Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:51 am

Early Repairs to 500 Wind Turbines Will Cost Millions 1399249160

Before anybody gets too excited and start looking again at going back to fossil fuels, I suggest they have a look at the actual lifetime costs of running coal-fired power stations over a 25 -->> 40 year lifecycle...

* $$A couple of billion$$ to build a station, these days ('cleaner'/'lower emissions' coal-fired turbines really jacks the costs up -- by $$hundreds of millions$$..);
* $$200 -- 400 million$$ each for a couple coal mines to feed it;
* $$hundreds of millions$$ to maintain and run the systems;
* Another $$billion$$ or more to close down, clean up and rehabilitate the power station and coal mining sites, plus addressing long term environmental impacts..

This last point is where a lot of the costs were previously hidden away with fossil fuel power stations -- where the company producing the power (irregardless whether gov't-owned or a private operator..) didn't factor in cleanup or environmental costs, but were happy to shrug those costs off onto local communities, the wider environment and future taxpayers. sleaze

Early Repairs to 500 Wind Turbines Will Cost Millions

Early Repairs to 500 Wind Turbines Will Cost Millions

Re: Early Repairs to 500 Wind Turbines Will Cost Millions