Wind Power Plants
Wind turbines can be installed in single units, in clusters of two to ten turbines, and in large arrays, called wind power plants or wind farms. Wind power plants can contain large numbers of wind turbines. California’s Tehachapi Pass contains several wind power plants, each with more than 1,000 wind turbines.
Wind turbines aggregated into wind power plants are thought to generate electricity more economically than single turbines or those in clusters. It can be more cost-effective to operate and maintain large arrays of wind turbines; however, concentrating wind turbines can reduce individual turbine production when turbines upwind disrupt the airflow of turbines downwind.
The arrangement of wind turbines in a wind power plant is often determined by local geography. Wind power plants on flat terrain are often assembled in long parallel rows. One of the world’s most visually pleasing wind power plants is Denmark’s Tændpibe-Velling Mærsk, a geometric array assembled in marching-band formation on the country’s Jutland Peninsula.
In hilly or mountainous terrain running perpendicular to prevailing winds, designers often line the ridgetops with long rows of wind turbines. This formation is used in several wind power plants in California’s Altamont Pass. Wind turbines may also be placed in long single rows along other windy, exposed land features. Throughout the Netherlands, linear arrays are placed parallel to many of the country’s dikes and drainage canals. Long rows of wind turbines are also located along harbor breakwaters at Ebeltoft in Denmark, Zeebrugge in Belgium, and Blyth Harbor in England.
Like conventional power plants, wind farms are an assembly of multiple independent generators?in this case, wind turbines. Although each wind turbine in a wind power plant operates independently, the turbines are typically connected to a central monitoring system. Whether power is produced from two turbines or from two thousand turbines, the power is aggregated and delivered to an electric utility network.
California is home to some of the largest arrays of wind turbines in the world. Wind power plants in the Altamont Pass contain a total of 6,000 wind turbines, and wind farms in the Tehachapi Pass comprise nearly 5,000 wind turbines. Wind farms near Palm Springs include some 3,000 wind turbines.
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Originally published here.
Nelson Doe