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Re:U.K. offshore wind park may generate power cheaper than b... by marcosdumay on Friday September 20, 2019 @08:36AM (#21025983)
The sea is a huge area without hills or mountains to reduce the wind speed, and near shore there is a daily guaranteed temperature differential nearby to generate some wind.

So, yes, it's so likely that it's practically guaranteed. Too much wind is an orders of magnitude more likely problem.

Re:U.K. offshore wind park may generate power cheaper than b... by wongarsu on Friday September 20, 2019 @01:30PM (#21029178)
>Too much wind is an orders of magnitude more likely problem.

It's worth elaborating that too much wind is as bad as too little wind. The blades can only spin so fast before disintegrating, so wind turbines have transmissions and choose a gear appropriate to the current wind speed. Once wind speeds exceed what the highest gear can handle the turbine locks the blades to prevent damage. In that state it doesn't produce any electricity.

Re:U.K. offshore wind park may generate power cheaper than b... by Robotbeat on Friday September 20, 2019 @02:56PM (#21030034)
That's not the whole story and is somewhat misleading. Wind turbines feather the blades at high velocity to keep from spinning too fast; they rarely actually have to lock the blades and stop electricity production, and even then that'd be a very localized drop in electricity, more than compensated by increased production from surrounding areas with strong winds.
Re:U.K. offshore wind park may generate power cheaper than b... by yread on Friday September 20, 2019 @05:44PM (#21031631)
Sometimes power is actually used to keep them turning as they need strong wind to start turning. At least that was true 10 years ago or so.