Re:2021 Williams F1 Computational Fluid Dynamics
by londons_explore on Monday April 26, 2021 @01:28AM
(#26939483)
A car size wind tunnel that can do 250 mph will be moving 400kg of air each second, and requiring a 2.5 megawatt fan. That costs ~$500k in electricity annually to run half a working day. That motor from China costs $30k. Imagine it's the same again for the fan, same again for wiring and control systems, and double that for fiberglass moulded side panels, foundations etc. We're talking £150k, and that's for a very budget wind tunnel.
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Re:2021 Williams F1 Computational Fluid Dynamics
by nixgeek on Monday April 26, 2021 @10:18AM
(#26942748)
Working back from the $500k number gets me to 19 cents per kilowatt hour which seems a trifle high for industrial usage with a predictable 2.5MW load.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/gas-and-...
It looks like 14-17 cents per kilowatt hour is about the going rate as of Q3 - Q4 2020.
I’m a little surprised this doesn’t lead to more such facilities being strategically located based on availability of cheap power, e.g. by building near to hydro, and where power costs can be ~2c/kWh. See: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/sunday-buzz...
I’m forced to conclude the power costs are a marginal expenditure versus other costs involved in running such a facility, and benefits from having R&D, testing and validation, and production all on the same campus?