Which way a wind turbine turns might not seem to matter

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At night, the atmosphere changes. Adjusting turbines to account for this could make them more efficient

of dial clocks swept over their faces the other way around, that would be the direction known as “clockwise”. And they would tell the hour just as faithfully. It is convenient to have all clock hands turn in the same direction, but it is an accident of history which direction that is. Similarly, it seems an arbitrary but efficient choice by wind-turbine makers that the blades of almost all of those devices turn clockwise.

The reason lies in the nocturnal behaviour of the bottom few hundred metres of the atmosphere, known as the boundary layer. By day, the sun’s rays heat the ground, which heats the nearby air, which rises in whorls of turbulence, resulting in a well-mixed boundary layer that behaves in the same way at all altitudes. The consequence, for a wind turbine, is that its rotor blades feel the same wind speed and direction whether they are at the top or the bottom of their rotation.

That matters for turbine pairs because the air that pushes against the blades of the upwind device, and thus gets them to rotate, say, clockwise, is itself deflected by those blades in the other direction. This turns it into a turbulent wake with a rotation going anticlockwise. This anticlockwise rotation conflicts with the Coriolis-induced veering tendency of the undisturbed wind around the wake.

 

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They should at least test that theory.

Trump would seriously say that, either way, they still cause cancer!

gtconway3d Hey windmill surviver thought of you. Cheers

This seems like a very small but useful improvement in efficiency. I've always wondered why windmills are placed so low to the ground there's A LOT more energy density just a few hundred feet up b/c of increased average wind speeds.

As Dylan wrote, sort of, in SHB: You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind turbine blows..Thus Dylan began the alternative energy movement.. - At night, the atmosphere changes. Adjusting turbines accordingly, could make them more efficient

but lets wait 4 aramco..

Ok....

arab technicians will of course declare their masterminded inhibitions...

Just in time for the end of the fucking world! Phew!

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