Yep :iagree:, Wind power is usually nothing more than a big bird blender. While the turbines have brakes to control the rotor speeds, the systems are a maintenance headache. Let the rotors get out of balance & lose the breaks, look out. I've seen more than one rotor separate from the generator & tower. They are not a consistent source of energy and as mentioned the return on investment blows. You'll be lucky to see a return on investment over the true life of the equipment & taking away subsidies.

Oh & back on topic, I kind of wish they would pull the plug on the Z if they have no plans to update anything. :cool:

:iagree: having a new model Z would only make it worst the on going depreciation of the 370Z to a level even a 18 year old could afford it.

Very sad. But it is what it is.


Do we need to close this thread? I think Im still hving fun with an electric Vibrator...massager on my back!

I already have a wife. I don't need another "ball and chain".

I come back last Sunday night. Had a great time in some 3rd would countries.

Wind turbines are a maintenance headache. They are constantly re-torquing the bolting. I've had a couple of job offers to work at wind farms. Tuned them all down.

Yep, I actually oversee the maintenance schedules on a small wind farm.
We have (7) 100 KW towers. The funny/ Sad thing is, we don't even have enough load to dump the energy we create & no way to store it. Money well wasted. We got ripped off for sure & suckered into the "Sustainability" B.S. :shakes head:

I worked for Duke Energy and Dynegy. As senior CRO at a 2 on 1 combine cycle. Also was the head of maintenance. The plant is in the PJM grid. PJM regulates load by price per MW. So the load is always changing. High price, you go up in load. Low price, you come down in load. I've seen the prices as high as $2,000 per MW. And low as minus $200 MW. :eek: You might as well pull the plug at those prices. Most grid operators give each plant a pre-set load for each hour. You have 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after the hour to match your load schedule. If you are not matching after the 10 minutes. You pay a penalty. :eek: If your plant trips off line. You have to buy MW's from another generator at market prices. Hopefully it's not at the 2 peak period times during the day. If it is. You can lose all of your week's profit in a few hours. If it's off peak. You can make money by not running. :icon14:

I held off on buying a Q60 waiting for the Z... let's just say I'm disappointed i didn't go for it. (and now looking at BMW M series)

They should have retired the current gen in 2015

What I am saying is that:
Electric cars are fast. The torque is instant, and that makes a fun driving experience.

Electric cars, outside of Teslas, and other stuff like the Rimac One and other mega expensive cars, are ugly. So no one is buying them for looks.

Electric cars, outside of Teslas etc, are slow. And they aren't slow because the tech is outrageously expensive and unattainable. They are slow because they are made to be econoboxes.

But we all know that the miata is not powerful. yet it is heralded as one of the best drivers cars of all time. The ND 2.0L Miata has 158bhp and 148lbs/ft. But the leaf, with the largest battery pack that Nissan sells is 110 hp and 210lbs/ft.

So the leaf is technically torquier than a miata. Currently the way that it is sold. Weight then, is the next major issue, because batteries weight more. So the battery system, according to wikipedia, is 480lbs. Whereas the Miata's engine weighs.. well I can't find an easy number, so the I4 that I found statistics for weighs 300lbs so lets say that, to be on the safe side?

So the Leaf's power pack and motor combination that is currently for sale is pretty close to inline with that of the current generation MX5.

And remember, torque in an electric motor is how much current you put through the motor, and horsepower is effectively how many volts the motor has. This has limitations as does anything else (comparable to forged internals except basically just windings of the motor and cooling). So the cost to make a faster Leaf, to Nissan, is simply to make a better battery pack. And that would benefit all of their cars that were are electric.

No one is going to jump out of their skin to buy and ugly and boring car, just to save the planet. People, as a whole, are not motivated by that. But I'm saying car manufacturers could make a fun electric car. They are choosing not to.

There are several ideas to dump the "waste" energy as you call it.
Why is there not a synchronous inverter to sell it back to the utility?
Why is there not a battery bank for storage?
You could also dump it into a large insulated water storage tank to offset water heating costs?
Or my favorite,
Run the excess energy into the largest Tesla coil you can find.

1. They don't make enough to sell it to the grid. They might have to buy power from the grid to cover their electric use.
2. You have a battery big enough to handle 700 volts? Duke Energy has been trying to develop a battery storage system for years.
3. Be cheaper to just lock the turbine in place and not spin the blades. If you can make steam. You could sell the steam to some factory. But the problem with that is. Wind farms are far away from anything like that.
4. The Tesla coil. If it's too close. You end up frying your own wind mills.