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Originally Posted by Hackslack
Does anyone know if there are wind farms of some sort on the east coast or in Florida to harness some of the immense energy emitted by these devastating storms?
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During heavy winds, wind turbines just disable themselves and act as fancy weather vanes. They can survive winds from 150 to 250 km/h, and some have been designed to withstand 300km/h, so they're quite durable, but when wind goes faster than 90km/h, they usually disconnect from the generator and just spin around uselessly. They use something similar to a transmission to maintain a constant current in the generator regardless of wind speed (like how your transmission changes gears to maintain a constant RPM), but at high wind speeds it's not efficient enough to convert the wind energy into usable power without other components, so it isn't done. It also wears them out, so they'd need more maintenance and cost more in the long term. It would be like driving your engine constantly at 5000+ RPM. It can be done, and it might get you somewhere faster, but it's not efficient and it certainly isn't good for the longevity of the engine.
Wind turbines also generally don't operate much below about -20°C, as the components become less effective and ice build up can put a lot of stress on the structure. During cold snaps, a wind farm will actually consume energy (or at least consume some of its own energy, if it's operating) to keep everything warm enough to prevent damage due to cold and ice.