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Video: Wind turbines & windsurfing

 
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windfind



Joined: 18 Mar 1997
Posts: 1899

PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 1:10 pm    Post subject: Video: Wind turbines & windsurfing Reply with quote

Hey Gang,

Tiring of the long, sometimes pedantic Windmill forum thread (mostly by F**king Godsey with some help from friends.), I decided to dig up a video on some REAL prospective double-blinded crossmatch-controlled research on wind turbines and windsurfing.

Enjoy!

Video: http://windnotes.phanfare.com/4743675_5825871#imageID=131834128

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com



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LUCARO



Joined: 07 Dec 1997
Posts: 661

PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 2:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

loopfest!
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm bothered more by the top photo than the bottom one. Those blades stall traffic on my way to the river even on the freeway, let alone the Gorge's twisty two-lane blacktops. PacNW natives are generally afraid to pass other vehicles, so I've seen literally a hundred cars pile up behind blades at crawling speeds. Blades on the hillsides, OTOH, provide data useful for anticipating wind behavior, especially regarding sudden very dramatic shifts in speed and direction with passing squalls. Windmill behavior can often tell us meteorological dunces as much or more than clouds do.

That sailor in the bottom photo, for example, would be wise to keep an eye on the solo turbine peeking over the high horizon 3.4 miles NNW of him if there are any thunderheads in that vicinity, lest he swim for an hour if that blade pivots to face north and slows to a crawl.

If the blades in the bottom pic stop on a windy day, prepare for a big surge in the wind; it stopped for its own safety. That ... or see above. If the blades pivot often, even subtly, the wind is changing direction, which may affect the river's terrain. An individual change will screw up the swell until its transient effects dissipate (good time for a quick lunch break), frequent changes imply fluky winds which can imply lousy or very inconsistent swell, and prolonged shifts can mean prolonged improvement or degradation in the swell and/or in the wind speed or quality.

And -- whaddaya think? -- could the increased drag generated by the hilltop windmills raise the hills' effective height, thus increase the Gorge's effective depth, thus persuade more air (i.e., wind) to follow the riverbed as its path of least resistance?
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ERROR!!!



Joined: 26 Feb 1998
Posts: 170
Location: East Bay

PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 4:10 pm    Post subject: Sherman Island Reply with quote

Will we soon be seeing huge blades in the hills above Berkeley, on Treasure Island, and on Angel Island? (Trying to stop windmills makes you feel even more powerless.) The real question is should I put a roof rack on my Prius?


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spanker_jeep



Joined: 15 Mar 2002
Posts: 404
Location: Outer Richmond District.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excellent footage and awesome music. That Pat Benatar Track was on.
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