KeyboardWarrior + 527 March 18, 2021 12 hours ago, turbguy said: Glasses are great insulators, until heated near molten, then..surprise! That said, some "stray electrons" do get through with sufficient potential. Use copper in series, and the VAST amount passes through the copper, on the order of 20(+) orders of magnitude greater. You would be hard pressed to measure, or even detect, the current through a "solid" glass conductor. They are very 'stray'. Indeed. Are we able to change the landscape in such a way as to avoid the issue we're discussing? (wind taking the path of least resistance) 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ronwagn + 6,290 March 18, 2021 17 hours ago, turbguy said: No doubt that wind turbines have issues when spaced too closely, and then the wind direction places one behind another. Difficult to model except in simple cases, I suppose. Think about the "success" of one helicopter hovering directly over another... I would think that wind turbines placement would be a relatively easy task for powerful computers programmed by highly educated weathermen and turbine designers looking at all conditions including the extremes. Variation of turbines height in the same farm might be an option to consider. Another might be earth moving to direct wind flow. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turbguy + 1,543 March 18, 2021 1 hour ago, ronwagn said: I would think that wind turbines placement would be a relatively easy task for powerful computers programmed by highly educated weathermen and turbine designers looking at all conditions including the extremes. Variation of turbines height in the same farm might be an option to consider. Another might be earth moving to direct wind flow. My experience says the OEM's recommend something like 5 to 7 rotor diameters of spacing between towers. That could have changed with further modelling. That said, I'm NEVER climbing another tower. EVER! 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turbguy + 1,543 March 18, 2021 Back to geothermal, just how deep does one have to drill to access a borehole temp of say, 300 degrees C? At that temp, you can really start to make some cheap juice in a closed-loop system. I'm certain it varies by location and a lot of factors I never even knew. Those that have good drilling experience might help answer this. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ward Smith + 6,615 March 19, 2021 16 hours ago, turbguy said: Back to geothermal, just how deep does one have to drill to access a borehole temp of say, 300 degrees C? At that temp, you can really start to make some cheap juice in a closed-loop system. I'm certain it varies by location and a lot of factors I never even knew. Those that have good drilling experience might help answer this. Short answer? It depends. Look up HPHT (high pressure high temperature) drilling and you'll find plenty of articles in Oil and Gas Journal, World Oil etc. 300C is a bit extreme but 300F is fairly common. The last drilling engineer who I "knew" on this site was @Douglas Buckland and if things worked out, the job lead I messaged him about panned out and he's busily employed. He was getting pretty miffed about the Eejit accounts so probably won't be coming back. The "thermal gradient" formula they teach in schools apparently only applies to textbooks. 😉 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
footeab@yahoo.com + 2,190 March 19, 2021 22 hours ago, turbguy said: My experience says the OEM's recommend something like 5 to 7 rotor diameters of spacing between towers. That could have changed with further modelling. That said, I'm NEVER climbing another tower. EVER! Current spacing is based in MW/acre rating. 0.2MW/acre and lower is what WTG are being built on. This is dropping every single year. Why? Turbulence. Some new farms are spaced at 0.15. I posted a link before but, if in line to maximum wind rose direction, then +10 rotor diameters is required, with a maximum of 15. Rotor diameters spacing abreast is currently 5 at minimum and going on most recent to rotor diameter of 7. Irregardless of tower height, rotor diameter. Terrain turbulence will effect this as well in the negative direction. 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dan Clemmensen + 1,011 March 20, 2021 On 3/16/2021 at 7:18 PM, Gerry Maddoux said: Not to sound like the prophet of doom and gloom, but while we in America have heard almost nothing about it, something weird is happening in Iceland, the clearcut "king" of geothermal energy. As would be expected, geothermal is most alluring in areas of the world--there are fewer than a dozen of them--where the mantle of the earth comes closest to the surface. And obviously, these are the most rambunctious. Iceland may or may not be the "clearcut king", but The Geysers, in California, is the largest operational geothermal plant in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geysers It's dispatchable, with an aggregate nameplate capacity of 1.6 GW spread over 22 generators and a capacity factor of 53%. It first became operational in 1960, and it currently provides 20% of the "renewable" power in California. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turbguy + 1,543 March 20, 2021 20 minutes ago, Dan Clemmensen said: Iceland may or may not be the "clearcut king", but The Geysers, in California, is the largest operational geothermal plant in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geysers It's dispatchable, with an aggregate nameplate capacity of 1.6 GW spread over 22 generators and a capacity factor of 53%. It first became operational in 1960, and it currently provides 20% of the "renewable" power in California. You get to think about what Yellowstone could do. DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!! 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ward Smith + 6,615 March 20, 2021 21 minutes ago, turbguy said: You get to think about what Yellowstone could do. DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!! One of my favorite authors, who you should look at because he always writes about Wyoming is C. J. Box. One of his better stories involved Yellowstone and geysers. Hint, don't mess with the geysers. 😜 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gerry Maddoux + 3,627 GM March 20, 2021 39 minutes ago, Dan Clemmensen said: Iceland may or may not be the "clearcut king", but The Geysers, in California, is the largest operational geothermal plant in the world: I stand corrected. Thanks for posting this. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
turbguy + 1,543 March 20, 2021 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Ward Smith said: One of my favorite authors, who you should look at because he always writes about Wyoming is C. J. Box. One of his better stories involved Yellowstone and geysers. Hint, don't mess with the geysers. 😜 I'm hooked in C.J. Box as well. Met him several times (Wyoming's a small town with REALLY long streets). Longmire series, as well. Still trying to find Absaroka County on the map.... Edited March 20, 2021 by turbguy 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gerry Maddoux + 3,627 GM March 20, 2021 3 hours ago, turbguy said: I'm hooked in C.J. Box as well. Met him several times (Wyoming's a small town with REALLY long streets). Longmire series, as well. Still trying to find Absaroka County on the map.... Or even in Wyoming. It was filmed in New Mexico. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Strangelovesurfing + 737 JD March 24, 2021 (edited) On 3/16/2021 at 4:18 PM, Gerry Maddoux said: A volcano is likely about to erupt, and this would correlate with solar blanking and coronal holes. Why, I do not know, but it does. If memory serves our new solar minimum is supposed to increase volcanism rates. If that hypothesis is correct atmospheric particulates would reduce average temperature more than just decreases in solar radiation would. Edited March 24, 2021 by Strangelovesurfing Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites