ARE WIND TURBINES WEARING OUT FASTER THAN THE INDUSTRY PREDICTED?

By Miriam Raftery

January 10, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) -- How long can we expect wind turbines built in our region to last? It’s a key question, since early wear and tear can sharply reduce efficiency, sticking ratepayers with hefty electricity bills. Now, a new study of 3,000 wind turbines finds that they are wearing down faster than manufacturers expected. The study, which claims to be the largest of its kind, examined both onshore and offshore turbines operating between 2000 and 2001.

The study’s author predicts that the premature wear will more than double the cost of electricity over the next 10 years due to hefty replacement costs for equipment. That’s troubling news in San Diego, where one wind facility is currently online and four additional industrial wind projects are proposed to be built.

The study found onshore wind turbines dropped from 24 percent of their maximum capacity in year one, plummeting to 11 percent by year 15. Offshore wind farms dropped even faster, from 39 percent initially to 145 percent just a decade after they were installed. Moreover, “…larger wind farms have systematically worse performance than smaller wind farms,” study author Gordon Hughes, an economist at Edinburgh University, said. Published by the Renewable Energy Foundation, an organization that has been critical of wind farms, the study has drawn accusations of bias from the wind industry.