[baseline-shift]

We are headed for 20 MW now, so a wind farm with five 20 MW turbines is a typical size for many gas power plants; 100 MW.

In the EU, there's testing facilities that are checking these at this 20 MW size now. Commercially at this point there's up to 17 MW operating in the North Sea.

[noneeeed]

That's awesome. I hadn't realised we were close to 20MW ones now. The Halide ones being installed in the North Sea are monsters, amazing engineering.

I'm pretty pessimistic about climate change. But the way wind and solar just keep getting cheaper and better gives me a certain amount of hope.

[konschubert]

Solar keeps getting cheaper. Wind has kind of hit a roadblock - there is less innovation coming China than for solar.

[_ph_]

Very different things. There is basically only one solar panel size on the market. Which starts at $100. Making large solar installations means just getting more panels. This is great for cost reduction, as that most of the times goes along with ramping up production numbers. The production of the single panel doesn't get more complex though.

Wind energy is also getting constantly cheaper, both due to cost reductions and due to making the wind generators larger and thus more efficient. Onshore wind energy is the cheapest in Middle Europe and if they could grow further, costs would go down accordingly.

But even if production can deliver, getting the blades gets more and more difficult, so here we area.

[davedx]

Wind is just different too. There are subtle advantages to scaling up wind: fixed costs increase but capacity factors do too (taller turbines means they’re turning more % due to more consistent wind speeds at higher altitudes).

[konschubert]

Solar keeps getting cheaper. Wind has kind of hit a roadblock - probably because it can’t be made in China.

[jl6]

Just remember gas plants run continuously at the rated capacity whereas wind capacity factor is 30-40%, so a like for like comparison probably involves storage.

[Tade0]

At this scale it's more like 60%+.

At 150m above ground where there rotor hub sits wind blows all the time.