Raycap News

Windmills And Lightning Strikes

Green energy production through the use of windmills and wind turbines has long been thought of as the future of energy production.  The need to decrease the amount of fossil fuel usage with regard to energy production has been ongoing.  Even if one does not believe that climate change exists, it cannot be denied that the pollution that happens as a result of fossil fuel usage in the ecosystem harms people.  Any reduction in the amount of pollution that happens worldwide is a good thing.  The debate has always been between the cost of energy production using methods that do not pollute, and the amount of pollution that actually happens.  People who are cost conscious argue that the pollution that is created through the dirty systems is not serious enough to justify the cost.  Those who are climate conscious argue the opposite.  The one thing that is not able to be argued is that if the systems were both cleaner and less expensive as well as able to produce enough energy to power major metropolitan areas, than there would be no need for fossil fuel production methods.

Wind power production has been around for many years but ultimately costs more than fossil fuel systems, simply because the equipment that is used in the process is more technologically advanced.  This means that the equipment is also more expensive and when positioned in the field it is easy to damage.  Because replacement costs of this equipment must be figured into the overall production costs, we find that wind power has been traditionally more expensive than fossil fuel production.  There have been great strides made over the course of the last few years to bring down the costs of wind power through the integration of advanced surge protection devices, specifically ones that protect the equipment in the field.  The majority of damage that happens to systems occurs as a result of lightning striking the blades which then produces a power surge that ultimately damages the equipment inside.  The cost associated with the repair and replacement of this equipment has always been the problem.  Through the integration of more advanced surge protection devices we find that we can reduce the amount of damage that occurs as a result of lightning strikes.  This is accomplished by surges that are produced by the lightning strike being diverted to ground in a more accurate method than in the past.

Modern surge protection devices are more robust and also better at cutting off the flow of electricity that is outside of the scope of a safety range.  This can happen in microseconds today, where in the past it took far longer.  This means that the damage that would be expected to occur every quarter has been significantly reduced, as well as the uptimes being extended far longer and they ever were before.  This allows for green energy systems to produce at higher rates for lower prices, and ultimately will allow the systems to be not only cleaner but also less expensive (as a power production method.)  The future of energy production is already here, and advanced surge protection devices are helping pave the way to a better planet.