Pulaski

Respectfully, I disagree, but then I liked the Fylingdales golf balls too.

Pulaski

But wind turbines feed high voltage lines, somewhere, leading away from the wind farm there have to be transmission lines.

Bink

I'm not so sure of Onshore voltages but Offshore the inter array cables (between the turbines) are normally 33 kV and the transmission line 132 kV.

Off the top of my head, this is at the lower end of onshore transmission voltages - like I said, I'm much more familiar with Offshore windfarms than onshore so don't know how it translates. It would depend on the windfarm location and distance to the grid to determine the voltage level that was practicable to minimize losses.

GeoffM

What I mean is there isn't a massive great HV power line directly attached to each turbine, just one of much lower oomph.

jeffreyhy

The voltages you mention are very slightly different from what I'm familiar with.

I don't know what voltage a large wind turbine typically puts out, but each turbine will have a step-up transformer to increase the voltage to 34.5 kV. There will be a number of turbines connected to each 34.5 kV collector line (your "inter array cables"). The collector lines will be underground cables for wind farms in farm country, but I suppose could be either underground or overhead lines in other circumstances. A number of collector lines will run to a central substation where the voltage will again be stepped up from 34.5 kV to whatever the voltage is at the point on the utility system where the wind farm will connect.

The windfarm will run a line of appropriate voltage from its substation to the utility's substation. The larger the wind farm, the higher the volatage will need to be in order for the lines to handle the amount of power produced by the wind farm.

Regards, JEff

jeffreyhy

True, but Pulaski has a valid point. Where the wind blows, and it's economic to build wind turbines, is generally not where the people are who need the power that the wind turbines produce. High voltage lines are required to get the electricity from where it's generated to where it's consumed.

Take a look at this web site to get some idea of the kind of transmission projects that are being proposed to transport wind energy:
http://www.cleanlineenergy.com/projects

Regards, JEff

Bink

Okay, so the voltages are very similar then. Like I said, I'm familiar with Offshore rather than onshore but the principles are the same,'collector' cables feeding to a local windfarm substation, higher voltage transmission line going to the grid (central substation). I seem to recall that there was some talk of standardizing the voltages at some point but...

The power rating of the cable is a different beast than the transmission voltage though. Power rating needs to be sufficient for the power that the turbines are generating. The voltage level will be chosen based on efficiency of transmitting over the specified distance typically.

GeoffM

Kind of missing the point though. The OP asked about living near a wind farm. Wind farms can be huge, like the one near Palm Springs. A wind farm is not criss-crossed all over by HV transmission lines. Thus, if there were a cancer risk from a HV transmission line then it does not compute that living underneath a wind turbine gives the same risk because the HV lines being fed by the wind farm may be many miles away from the farthest turbines, with much lower lines going from the turbines to that concentration point.

Pulaski

... and invariably underground, to boot!

jeffreyhy

Yes, we are talking about essentially the same voltage for windfarm collector systems, and it does seem that the industry, in the US anyway, has standardized on that voltage level whether formally or informally. I disagree with you somewhat on this point, although it may just be a question of semantics. Voltage level and power capability are intimately related. The more power that needs to be moved, the higher the voltage has to be to move it. It is true that longer distances also call for higher voltages for efficiency's sake, but regardless of distance the voltage has to be high enough for the materials to handle the associated current.

Regards, JEff

Englishmum

I wouldn't want to live near a wind farm at all. Here are some reasons why:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/ene...cientists.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/mosl...#axzz2JxXbXN6Z

https://www.illwind.org/

http://www.windfarmvictims.org.uk/

http://www.nature.com/news/the-troub...l-wind-1.10849

http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2...bine-syndrome/

Bink

I think it's just a question of semantics - we're essentially saying the same thing. I was just trying to clarify that the power is what it is (and yes the voltage level is related) but the next step is trying to get the efficiency right and that's a separate calculation that may involve stepping it up significantly. So many variables involved - I've just finished a FEED study for an offshore platform that's getting power from a 132kV cable that's in the order of 50 miles long and there were many many iterations involved in getting the sizing right for that to be as efficient as possible. Charging current can be a real PITA over that kind of distance!

jeffreyhy

True. True again. They can also be small - only a handful of turbines. True again, although there are wind farms that have high voltage transmission lines running through them. Agreed, your initial point is correct - the OP asked about the joys and woes of living near wind turbines, not the joys and woes of living near transmission lines. Regards, JEff

kimilseung

Those golf balls do look kind of amazing.

jeffreyhy

Did you look at DC? Yes, the terminals are expensive!

Regards, JEff