Wind turbine durability

Why is this?

The Altamont wind farm consists of about 4,800 small wind turbines with a capacity of 576 megawatts

It is a puzzle to see so many of the wind turbines that are idle.
Even in active wind farms, such as at Altamount Pass, it is usual to see at least 20% of the turbines idle. Older installations are usually idle as well.
Why is this? ...

Altamount is one of the oldest (major) wind farms in the US. If it uses 1990's wind turbine tech it may not be illustrative of the reliability of turbines built today.

I'd have thought that there would be a push to use the resource, not to waste it.

Companies don't build wind farms to make electricity. They build them to make money.

If you get a huge governmemt subsidy for building a new wind farm, and peanuts from the electricty it generates, it's not your problem that the system is "stupid". You just build it and take the money.

the resource is tax credits.
It's largely foreign banks financing US windfarms and transmission lines, as well as lots of other infrastructure.

It draws foreign money into US which i guess makes government happy.

Put on your accountant's hat - when the balance sheet no longer justifies running the darn thing because there's no production tax writeoff, you abandon it.
This page says the tax credit generally goes ten years
http://dsireusa.org/incentives/incen...ive_Code=US13F

An older Nuke plant that's no longer paying interest on the loan to build it can make electricity for about what the windpower production tax credit amounts to.

Do you have a source handy for that claim on "largely" "foreign" finance or wind turbines?

Further, foreign countries are investing here in the U.S. Of the 26 banks that were actively investing in clean energy in America in 2010, only six of them were U.S. based. However, what concerns Third Way the most is not that foreign countries are increasingly investing in clean energy, both in their own countries and in America; in fact, this is seen as a vote of confidence for the U.S. market, not to mention the whole industry. What is worrisome is that it appears as though the outsiders are seeing a gold mine in the U.S. clean energy economy while the American Congress sits idly by doing nothing, says Third Way.

Iberdrola Renewables, the U.S. division of Spain-based Iberdrola Renovables SA, made waves at an energy conference this week by announcing plans to invest $6 billion in energy generation by 2013.

Frank Burkhartsmeyer, vice president of strategic planning for Portland-based Iberdrola U.S., spoke on a panel about large energy projects at the World Energy Congress in Montreal Wednesday and outlined his company's plans to add 3,000 megawatts of power capacity over the next three years. His comments attracted the attention of Bloomberg News.

"Demand is growing but there are three factors that influence supply as we see it: the quality of the wind source, predictable, supportive renewable energy policy, and the ability to get power to customers," Burkhartsmeyer said, according to Bloomberg.

Bolstered by the stimulus package, Iberdrola is on track to reach the $6 billion investment goal, according to Iberdrola spokeswoman Jan Johnson.

Iberdrola is the second-largest wind power operator in the United States with an installed capacity of 3,877 megawatts produced at 41 wind farms in 23 states.

With Congress seeming to have abandoned the clean energy sector, American companies are fighting for capital, and survival. Others are moving in. Third Way has found that this capital hole is beginning to be filled by funds from outside the United States. Chinese investment in the U.S. market jumped 130% in 2011 and the French took control of the second-largest U.S. solar panel maker. Foreign investment in American clean energy is a great sign for the sector, jobs, and tax revenues. We support it. But we do not want the U.S to lose entirely our leadership in the clean energy sector and see domestic companies competing in a $2.3 trillion global market disappear.

WASHINGTON - Dallas investor Cappy McGarr said Tuesday that his Chinese partners in a $1.5 billion West Texas wind energy farm proposed last month have agreed to build a turbine manufacturing plant in the United States.

Allco Finance Group (AFG) Announces the Sale of the Tehachapi, US Wind Development Project

6/17/2008
ASX-listed Allco Finance Group ("Allco") and a consortium comprising the US-based ArcLight Capital Partners and Terra-Gen Power, have today agreed to the sale and purchase of Allco's and its co-investors' US wind energy interests for a total sale price of US$325 million. The interests being sold comprise a circa 3100MW wind development project in Tehachapi, California, one of the largest wind development projects in the world.



Allco and its co-investment partners will realise significant liquidity and profitability from the sale which is part of a previously announced Allco asset sales program.


Nick Bain, Allco's Head of Infrastructure, said, "This sale has delivered to Allco and its co-investment partners a highly profitable outcome in a relatively short time frame, a result of Allco's decision 2 years ago to establish its global wind energy business."



Steen Stavnsbo, Allco's Head of Wind Energy, added "In Tehachapi, we have benefited greatly from our relationship with our development partner, Oak Creek Energy Systems, a subsidiary of Japanese Marubeni Corporation, who has played a pivotal role in the development of the project to date".

In the US the two, wind power generation and the subsidy are connected, hence the name "Production Tax Credit". The operator is given a subsidy per kWh generated. No power, no subsidy.

Well, let's not go off topic to the question "if wind power is economically viable, why does the wind industry even need subsidiies"...

But back to the OP's question, another issue is distributing the power form the wind farm to the consumers. That had led to silly situations in Scotlamd for eaxmple, which has good sites for onshore wind farms but low local demands for power. That has led to wind farms being built (and subsidised) that can not be run at full power because the distribution network doesn't have enough capcaity to handle the power being generated, and the distribution companes (which are separate from the generation companies, and don't have the same access to "green energy" subsidies) can't afford to fix the problem using their own finances.