Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The audiences were thirsting for information, for concrete
knowledge on technology, yields and economy. They were windmill
owners
and naturally wanted to know which wind turbine
was the best, a question impossible to answer. So the task was to
inform and enlighten, to make the coming owner of a windmill as
knowledgeable as possible for choosing his first wind turbine.
Consequently, much time was spent on elucidating the
advantages and disadvantages of upwind and downwind wind
turbines; whether to have the mechanical brake on the fast or the
slow shaft; whether glass fibre was ecologically acceptable as blade
material; was the Darrieus turbine not the ideal; should the wind
turbine be connected to the grid; did water brakes have a future;
how great should the safety factor of the wind turbine gear be;
could you build one yourself or would you need help from the
outside; should you own the turbine all by yourself or together
with others, etc.
Many of the questions are still completely relevant today.
However, things developed so fast, that elementary experiences
with the operation of one type of windmill had hardly been made,
before it was out of production and been replaced by something new,
bigger and more economical. When once in a lifetime, you had to
enter the difficult and new market for wind turbine acquisition,
you might have been an easy catch for a ruthless salesman.
in spe
7.6 
The Pioneers' Pop-Up
Combating pollution, wastefulness, noise, private cars and atomic
power were the themes of the NOAH summer camp near Grenaa
in 1975. Here a wind turbine built in a week provided the power.
Hot water came from a solar collector made from parts of a fridge.
The cooking was done on a solar stove, and an oil barrel served as a
biogas digester—all of it very primitive, but very inspiring.
So when it is feasible to build a windmill tower of thin spruce
stems, and it works, it must be very straightforward to work with
it all, was the conclusion of many visitors. On 15 July 1975, leading
Danish daily newspaper
wrote about the camp that, “it is
possible to wrench all the energy that people need from sun and
wind. (…) Nuclear power plants that Elsam and Risø want to force
on us, are the wrong track.”
Politiken
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