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powerlines, windmills and weak winds...
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rigatoni



Joined: 25 Feb 1999
Posts: 498

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 12:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wind direction is key as mentioned earlier. Wind at the Powerlines and Sign suck when it is coming over the hills. It gets gusty and the swells get messed up.

Wind coming out of the SW (coming right down the river) makes for the best conditions as the wind is less gusty and more fetch for better swell.

I am not sure it is affecting the wind strength but it seems like the wind has tended to be coming over the hills more often than it used to.
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damel



Joined: 15 Jul 2007
Posts: 247

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

First off the wind being better at the access than the power-lines is somewhat of a myth in my opinion. When the wind picks back up in the afternoon it generally settles at the access first for obvious reasons but I find its stronger and more consistent later at power-lines. For all of you that disagree I think its great; there have never been any crowds at power-lines and my friends and I have had the place to ourselves most of the time.

The amount of energy created by the winds that blow through the bay area and the delta is huge compared to the amount of energy the wind turbines are tapping into. Claiming they are effecting the wind in the area can be compared to claiming solar panels are causing global cooling. The cross section created by 10 wind turbines is also less than 1% of a skyscraper so there is a better argument that urban development disrupts the wind. As for wind turbines effecting marine life that is a serious concern but have you ever been to Gulf of Mexico... what you see on the horizon is far worse than wind turbines but as the saying goes "As long as it isn't my backyard".

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Arrgh



Joined: 05 May 1998
Posts: 864
Location: Rio

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 1:55 pm    Post subject: Re: powerlines, windmills and weak winds... Reply with quote

dvCali wrote:
stilladdicted wrote:
but point being, that energy is being harnessed. It has to take away from what reaches sailing sites, no?

Of course Windmills take away the wind, and not only that but build enough of them and they will effect climate (besides being a rather horrifying eyesore)

And they slow the rotation of the earth!
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dvCali



Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 1314

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 3:15 pm    Post subject: Re: powerlines, windmills and weak winds... Reply with quote

dennis_c wrote:
dvCali wrote:

Of course Windmills take away the wind, and not only that but build enough of them and they will effect climate (besides being a rather horrifying eyesore)

And they slow the rotation of the earth!

Yes, I noticed that! Shocked
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scottwerden



Joined: 11 Jul 1999
Posts: 302

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

isobars wrote:
By design and definition, windmills subtract energy from the wind, lowering its speed immediately downwind. .


The biggest bad effect of a wind turbine is the downwind rotational wake. There is a tremendous amount of torque that is required to turn the generator and that torque can only come about by a change in angular momentum of the air going through the blades. One of the immutable laws in physics is the need to conserve angular momentum and this is realized by an equal but opposite rotation of the air downwind from the turbine.

The good news here is that a rotational wake represents energy loss, so wind turbine builders try hard to minimize the effect. In any event, wake dissipation should occur over length scales of 10-20 x rotor diameter. So a 100m turbine will largely have dissipated its wake within a couple of kms.
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

scottwerden wrote:
The good news here is that a rotational wake represents energy loss, so wind turbine builders try hard to minimize the effect.

Thus their objective is to strip as much energy (speed) from the wind as possible ... not good if we're within a km or two downwind of them. But if we're off to one side of the turbine wind -- that is, if they're right or left of dead upwind -- I'd think their collective resistance would tend to divert a little extra wind our way, just as a hill would. If anyone cared enough, it could all be simulated in a very modest wind ("breeze") tunnel experiment.
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dllee



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 5328
Location: East Bay

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ARE there wind mills upwind of the launch's?
Or are they on the other side of the river, the N side, where the winds coming from there make it terrible anyways?
And windmills in Pittsburg don't matter.
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Georges



Joined: 10 Apr 2000
Posts: 249

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I find that the dead birds found around the base of them make for a cheap meal during these tight economic times.Never thought about them as wind killers!!! Now I am pissed. Cool Gman
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dllee



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 5328
Location: East Bay

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, the dead birds attract all sorts of insects, which can be eaten, and the insects attract more live birds, squirrells, and rats, which can be eaten, which attrack larger predatory birds, skunks, possums, raccons, which can be eaten, which attracts bobcats, foxes, wolves, and mountain lions, which can be eaten, which attract bears, white sharks, and tyranosaorus rex, which can eat you.
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swchandler



Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588

PostPosted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

One wonders whether the buzzard population is styling with all the carrion, or on the other hand, suffering the maze of the wind turbines. Will buzzards be determined to be an endangered species in the Rio Vista corridor? In the Santa Barbara area, it's apparent to me that the 101 freeway doesn't affect their numbers, nor that of American Crows.
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