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- Wind turbines are designed to cope with varying wind speeds. The generating capacity of the turbine is a compromise between a variety of technical features to make the most of the available wind energy.
- Generally wind turbines are harvesting 75% of the time, that is they are rotating between the minimum and maximum acceptable wind speeds at an 18 hrs per day average.
- The load capacity of the generator is the calculation needed to anticipate how much electricity the wind turbine will generate.
- Most turbines are designed to operate at 25-30% load capacity, this means that a 1 megawatt generator will over a full year produce the equivalent of 250- 300 kilowatts for every hour of that year.
- It is important to understand that the compromise the designers make when building wind turbines does not mean that they are inherently inefficient. Most modern cars have a similar compromise built in to their design. Cars have the capacity to be driven at 120mph for as long as there is fuel in the tank, however optimum fuel efficiency is obtained at 56mph.