According to David Rosser- director of CBI Wales the wind only blows strongly enough 10% of the time for a wind energy project to work. According to James May from Top Gear on his latest TV show, wind turbines only work 30% of the time . Why do people who are anti-wind energy keep using this against wind when they are so easily proven wrong? People with responsibility for disseminating information should check their facts.
To try and help stop the confusion, here are the facts:
1) A modern wind turbine has a maximum capacity of around 2000 kilowatts (kW) or 2 Megawatts (MW)
2) There are 8760 hours in a year (365 days x 24 hours)
3) A 2 MW wind turbine will generate around 30% of its maximum theoretical capacity resulting in 5256 Megawatt hours (MWh) generated per turbine per year
4) Taking all of the above into consideration a wind turbine will generate enough green electricity for the average annual needs of around 1100 homes, using an average demand of 4700 kWh per house based on electricity consumption figures from Digest of UK Energy Statistics
Wind turbines usually operate 75-90% of the time – but not at full capacity.
For further information this British Wind Energy Association web-page is helpful.
http://www.windenergyplanning.com/wind-turbine-efficiency/
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