Gareth J
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- North Cornwall
I've wondered about this; instead of having the wind spill off the blades, why not instead bring in a further stage of generation that makes more of the energy acting on them? Obviously not enough to drag them until they snap... of course they HAVE been designed to withstand overloads, haven't they...?
That's exactly how turbines already work. The control electronics sense the speed of the rotor and modulate it with increasing/ decreasing electrical loading. When the capacity of the machine is reached (i.e some safe limit to stop the thing breaking) blades tip away and reduce the efficiency of the machine. At this point and past it, increasing wind speed (should) result in no further loading. It'll be making out. Any more load out on the machine would be outside its design scope.
Sorry, a reply to a rather old post now!