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Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 15, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The energy in the wind scales as the cube of the wind speed.

This is true in theory, and a decent model for small wind turbines in relatively slow winds.

It's not useful for large modern turbines (let's say 3 MW and up), since it assumes that higher wind speed automatically results in faster rotor RPM. But since rotor RPM is critically limited by blade tip velocity, a large turbine reaches max RPM in ultra light wind. After that point, power scales linear with wind speed. See this power curve, first example I found

Add to that, that a large turbine reaches nameplate capacity at around 10 m/s wind speed (and goes linear at around 3 m/s, shuts down at around 30 m/s), and it's really not that much of a problem in a modern park.