Question: How much electricity does it take to build each individual wind turbine?

Shahil Juggernath answered on 15 Mar 2017:

I like this question because I’ve never paid much attention to this and cannot give you a simple answer!!

BUT…

This is where the COOLEST part of being an engineer comes in. It’s where you need to “figure it out” using the engineering principles you have learnt at university, experience from work, and common sense!

There are two ways I would look at this:

1. The amount of electricity used for just installing it.
2. The amount of electricity used for EVERYTHING.

What are the questions you need to ask to answer these? I will give you an idea of what should be used to consider this.

– How long would you use the crane for that puts up the towers and blades? Then you can calculate the power needed by each crane and come up with an answer.
– How much power do you need to “power up” the internal components (like gearboxes and motors) so that they start working?
– How much power do you need to get the entire thing running for the first time.

To find out the electricity needed, you just add these three together!

Now…

I don’t know the exact answer to your question BUT I can find an answer to the three sub-questions. This is one way that engineers use their training and skills to solve problems that seem to have no direct answer!