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Editorial Commentary
Oliver L Campbell: The outbreak
of renewables on the energy scene
Renewables are on the drawing board and the high price of oil will promote further research into their development. The impact on oil consumption will be small for many years but, at some stage in the future, renewables will begin to make a notable inroad into the demand for oil. I will touch here briefly on just one of them which is wind-power.
The sleek, tall columns and thin blades of wind turbines make them individually an attractive structure. It is only when a large number of them are put together to form a wind farm that they look unsightly. This is aggravated by the fact that, because they built on high parts of the landscape, their unsightliness stands out for all to see. Any proposal to site a wind farm in a place of natural beauty leads to strong public condemnation.
Scientists in the United Kingdom have now come up with the idea of placing wind turbines on floating platforms in the North Sea where a) they will be far out so as not to be visible from the shore, and b) the wind blows constantly from a breeze to gale force.Like others, I have always wondered why wind turbines were not made with more and wider blades. I recently read the explanation is that, “The narrow blades rotate faster than wide ones. They also have the advantage of starting at lower wind speeds.” The writer further elucidates that “The power generated is more or less proportional to the “swept area,” so blade dimensions and number don’t matter that much.”
Wind-power is one of the “renewables” that have attracted interest as the technology is relatively simple. The problems are to site the turbines where the wind-power is constant, where they are not an eyesore, and where their humming sound cannot be heard from nearby dwellings. The North Sea seems to be a perfect place. The only problem is the danger to ships so they should be kept well away from shipping lanes.
Venezuela is blessed with cheap electricity since the Guri Dam and other hydro-electric sources produce some 80 percent of the country’s power needs. Venezuela also has abundant quantities of natural gas, so it is unlikely to look at wind-power in the foreseeable future. Should it ever do so, I recall from the time I spent in Cardón on the Paraguaná Peninsular, when I worked with Shell, that the trade winds blow from the east in a constant fashion. Out to sea, I imagine the wind force is even stronger. Perhaps, way out into the future, Venezuela will have wind farms off its coastline.
Oliver L Campbell, MBA, DipM, FCCA, ACMA, MCIM was born in El Callao in 1931 where his father worked in the gold mining industry. He spent the WWII years in
England, returning to Venezuela in 1953 to work with Shell de Venezuela (CSV), later as Finance Coordinator at Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). In 1982 he returned to the UK with his family and retired early in 2002. Petroleumworld does not necessarily share these views.Editor's note: All comments posted and published on Petroleumworld, do not reflect either for or against the opinion expressed in the comment as an endorsement of Petroleumworld. All comments expressed are private comments and do not necessary reflect the view of this website. All comments are posted and published without liability to Petroleumworld.
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Petroleumworld News 12/18/07
Copyright© 2007 Oliver L Campbell. All rights reserved.
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