How long would a commercial windmill have to run to produce the energy equivalent to a barrel of oil?
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M$6 Answers
To compare to a windmill's output, find out how many kilowatt/hours the windmill produces.
This Wikipedia article implies that typical production is 35% of max capacity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
So, a 1 megawatt rated windmill running at average load creates ~350KW/h per hour, and 1/3-1/2 of that can be used as baseload electric power - something that can always be assumed to be there, but I don't think 35% of 35% of the output is what you were looking at for comparison - you're not looking at base load, but rather the average power generated by the windmill over time. If you're looking for power generated at average wind speeds, that base load 35% of 35% looks to be close to that mark - IE at any random given moment the turbine is probably producing 10-15% of its capacity.
So, if that's the case, and the numbers are correct, we have at full capacity, of course, it'll be 1.7 hours. At overall average output levels over time (35%), it'll be an average 5.9-6 hours to make a barrel equivalent of energy, and, at average wind speeds, power output is significantly lower - only a small portion of the power is made when wind speed is average or below.
http://www.douglaspud.org/Environment/WindPower.aspx
This wind farm concept uses 49 1.3MW generators, which don't make any power until the wind is going 8mph, and produce maximum power when the wind is going 29.1mph. So, on a windy day, it'll be a little over an hour to make one barrel equivalent, overall power average will be close to four hours per barrel, and average wind speed will probably be around 8-10 hours per barrel.
Those are ~200' tall windmills with 3 ~100' blades to give an idea of the size of a 1.3MWh windmill.
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M$
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M$
Well that's more information than I had before. Thanks for the link. If my division is correct than 1 barrel of oil would produce the same amount of energy as a 1 megawatt windmill running at 35% capacity for 1 and 2/3 days.
Unless somebody refutes that, it's close enough for me. Let's give it until tomorrow and see what else we see. Thanks arous!
so, a windmill produces watts that are Joule/second (maybe 25000J/second) see wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
So just calculate average windpowerplant where you live (*.fi here:)
http://www.ocean.washington.edu/courses/envir215/energynumbers.pdf (even abstract gives very good idea what we're talking about...)
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M$
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M$
The figure represents burning the crude as is. Converting it would produce fuel producing more energy which will more than offset the effort of conversion or no one in their right mind would do it. The long and short of it is, exploiting our oil reserves produces more bang for the buck. And that at an environmental footprint much less than any currently proposed alternatives.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You're welcome. I had fun looking everything up and learned a bit myself :D