Philadelphia’s football stadium has 14 turbines and 11,000 solar panels. Seven on the other side obviously.
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Those are neat looking, aren’t they? They’re UGE micro-turbines. Note, the micro part, despite their huge size. UGE are apparently the best VAWTs out there right now, but you pay a big penalty for that sexy eggbeater profile. Here’s a quote from the cleantechnica review of that model:
These pretty basic comparisons show the reason why the lifecycle cost of electricity (LCOE) for horizontal axis wind turbines is always better than the LCOE for vertical axis wind turbines. They have to sweep twice the area with four times the material to achieve the same capacity. Added to this is that they are so often sited in very poor wind resources with masts that are too short because of their ‘advantage’ of being able to catch turbulent air, and the capacity factor drops tremendously.
I think it’s great that an alternative energy system capable of powering the stadium was installed, and those are probably the best (or at least among the best) vertical axis wind turbines in the world. But fundamental physics dictates that they will be very poor performers compared to an equally costly horizontal prop wind turbine, and they won’t last as long either.
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Beautiful, perhaps, but not sublime.
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Well, they make a closer approach to Kantian elegance than an Edison plant, surely?
My geophysical location has no energy resources other than weak hydro, weak solar, and very good offshore wind. For electricity we burn vast quantities of fuel (uranium, methane, propane, and oil) imported from other places. That situation probably influences my perception of wind turbine beauty! No belching chimneys or armed compounds is nice.
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If your point is they are mostly for show, you are correct. From their site.
Fixed solar panels in the stadium parking lot generate the bulk of renewable power.
I often pass by the stadium and rarely see them even spinning. They are situated so they are very visible from I-95, in a kind of, in your face way. I applaud the panels on the facade, and the parking lot because they are fairly effective, and give use and a bit of flair to what would be just another asphalt desert, and curtain wall, but the turbines are for show.
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