Question

A large coal-fired power station produces 2000 MW of electrical energy. A wind turbine with 33 m blades can produce 300 kw.
(a) How many turbines would be needed to replace the power station?
(b) Why, in actual practice, this number of turbines could not replace the coal-fired power station ?

Answer 1

(a) Output of coal-fired power station = $2000MW=2000\times {10}^{6}W=2\times {10}^{9}W$

Output of a single wind turbine = $300kW=300\times {10}^{3}W=3\times {10}^{5}W$

So, number of turbines required = $\frac{2\times {10}^9}{3\times {10}^5}=6666.67=6667$

(b) Establishing 6667 wind turbines would require a very large area, which is practically not feasible.