The study of wind conditions off the coast of Australia points to a resource that is likely to outperform the North Sea with speed and reliability. Proposals are already present to apply this amount of power and a new report reveals that they can achieve the highest tapped outputs ever in the world. Plumbing costs have left power generation as a barrier to wind and solar eclipses. This “power factor” – a generator that produces an annual amount of its theoretical maximum – made it important as crucial the first commercial wind farms had a capacity below 20 percent.
It has grown with taller turbines and better installations where very good locations are more than 50 percent. Dr. Souven Teske of the University Of Sydney University Of Technology has calculated that modern wind turbines located on the south coast of Tasmania are unheard of by about 80 percent. A wind farm there can almost always generate enough electricity, even if full production is short. Such a position may prove more reliable than most fossil fuels or nuclear plants, as maintenance can do one turbine at a time.
In addition to the northern part of the North Sea, wind power is more than 50 percent because it is limited to small hotspots in places like Morocco and Egypt where there are similarities with beneficial geographical factors. The southern coast of Tasmania is transformed into a much larger part, the “Roaring Forty” where the winds whip around the entire planet with the slightest hint to stop. Teske told IFLScience that he was not aware of any proposals to use this remarkable resource, noting: “You need a strong power connection [to generate generators] and everything is over in Hobart.”
However, some sites under consideration near Australia’s main transmission line may still set world records and new proposals are always being published. The roaring forties were probably closer to the Australian grid than the seas of Iceland rather than the seas of Europe, which doesn’t stop some very ambitious plans.
