Wind Turbines Don’t Like Cold Weather

Some countries learned something that the warmer countries did not: wind turbines can freeze in winter. Not only do they cease to put out power in very cold weather, they actually need to be heated. (1)

Consequently, they had been consuming more electricity than they generated. Even on a good day they rarely worked above a quarter of their theoretical capacity. And in high winds they had to be switched off altogether to prevent damage. (2)

The frozen turbine problem also occurred in Canada in February 2011. A $200 million wind farm in northern New Brunswick was frozen solid, cutting off a supply of renewable energy for New Brunswick power. The 25 kilometer stretch of wind turbines was shut down for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades. (3)

All the above occurred 10 or more years ago. Just recently, temperatures in Texas fell to as low as zero degrees F, causing widespread disruption.

Thermal energy sources, including gas, coal and nuclear were all affected due in part to frozen instruments.

Wind turbines were also part of the problem. So why did this happen, and how do turbines operate in locations where severe cold is much more likely?

Several wind turbines experts noted the situation could have been avoided if the turbines had been equipped with what are known as cold weather packages, which can involve as number of precautions such as heating up turbine components and lubricants. It hadn’t been necessary to install such kits in Texas where the climate is generally warm. (4)

Also, when a wind turbine blade does spin in cold, wet weather, the ice buildup can span the length of the 50 meter long blade, severely disturbing the aerodynamic balance of the entire 150 meters tall machine. (5)

A recent study affirms 0.3 m (12 inches) of ice buildup along the tip of a wind turbine’s 50 meters long blades during a typical ice storm dramatically reduces the blades capacity to rotate—even in very windy conditions.

The averaged power production loss induced by this accretion reaches up to 80%. (6)

The evidence that wind energy cannot reliably meet even the most fundamental need to keep us warm during harsh winter weather continues to accumulate.

Events in mid-February throughout the center of the country, including Texas, and last summer in California, suggest that attempting to replace

nuclear plants with variable renewable energy sources could make electricity grids less resilient. While energy sources across all categories failed in mid-February, they didn’t all fail equally. The capacity factors for nuclear, natural gas, coal, and wind in Texas during the four days of load shedding during the cold snap were 79 percent, 55 percent, 58 percent, and 14 percent, respectively.

Although Texas lost one of its nuclear reactors after cold water affected a sensor, automatically shutting down the reactor, it returned to service with 64 hours, and thus in time to help end the power cuts.

Meanwhile, nuclear reactors in other cold snap states, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan operated normally. (7)

Even if all Texas wind turbines had been winterized, it is unlikely that they would have contributed significantly to electricity supply because wind

speeds in cold snaps are so low. It is for this reason that grid operators do not rely on wind turbines to provide more than trace amounts of power during those periods. And indeed, while wind turbines north of Texas functioned more or less as intended, during the cold snap, they produced very little power for their grids.

Most of America’s population is East of the Mississippi which represents areas most susceptible to erratic weather patterns, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and ungodly amounts of rain and snow and frigid temperature extremes, which perpetuate the unreliability of any intermittent electricity attainable from wind and solar.

The northern hemisphere turns on bitter winters, getting wind turbines and solar panels to turn on during one, is another matter. Wind chills below zero from a nor’easter have recently hit much of the country.

The push to go Green at any cost would leave America dependent on weather dependent intermittent electricity from wind turbines and solar panels. This would be an energy disaster. (8)

References

1. Kenneth P. Green, “The myth of green energy jobs: the European
2. experience,” aei.org, February 15, 2011
3. 2. Richard Littlejohn, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way
4. the wind blows,” Daily Mail, December 28, 2010
5. 3. Greg Weston, “Ice buildup on wind turbines cuts renewable energy,”
6. Vancouver Sun, February 16, 2011
7.  Ed Browne, “Why did wind turbines freeze in Texas when they work in
8. the Arctic?, newsweek.com, February 18, 2021
9. 5. Kenneth Richard, “Devastating drone images expose the uselessness of
10. wind energy in cold weather,” notrickszone.com, March 25, 2021
11. 6. Linyue Gao et al, “A field study of ice accretion and its effect on the
12. power production of utility scale wind turbines,” Renewable Energy,
13. 167, 917, April 2021
14.  “Nuclear plant closures and renewables increase electricity prices &
15. unreliability, testifies Michel Shellenberger to US Senate 2021,”
16. co2coalition.org
17. , March 11, 2021
18. 8. Ronald Stein, “America’s light usage reveals insanity of relying on
19. weather-dependent wind & solar,” heartland,org, March 9, 2021

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