vtsnowedin wrote:Even in salt water a reinforced concrete base built properly today should last about 100 years with minimal maintenance.During that time it could hold three or four towers that were each rehabbed a couple of times during their useful life. You can expect that everything of value as recycled material will be stripped from each turbine when they are removed from service.
I would also expect that most bases would also have a tide flow underwater turbine attached that would give a predictable addition to the total output.
What is of ongoing value isn't the machine. It's the location (and any claims on that location), the wind there, and how much energy any machine at that location has produced, and can produce in the future..
With a family member, I had a small company that made good money transporting generators, turbines, and bearings from aging power plants to a GE plant near to where we lived to be refurbished and returned to service. Various power providers would pay a lot to expedite this process. I once asked a maintenance manager at a plant in Alabama, after he applauded me for getting the bearing back well ahead of schedule, why they were paying so much to transport these things. He pointed to the turbine as they began off-loading that huge bearing and said; "that turbine is losing $10,000 a minute while it's down". A smallish hydro plant near me has been in service since 1942. I hauled the generator and its bearings out of there, and back, in the late 80s and I expect that plant will be in service at least another 50 years.
How are productive wind energy installations any different?