What are the disadvantages of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines?
– Taller masts and blades are more difficult to transport and install. Transportation and installation can now cost 20% of equipment costs. – Stronger tower construction is required to support the heavy blades, gearbox, and generator. – Reflections from tall HAWTs may affect side lobes of radar installations creating signal clutter, although filtering can suppress it. – Mast height can make them obtrusively visible across large areas, disrupting the appearance of the landscape and sometimes creating local opposition. – Downwind variants suffer from fatigue and structural failure caused by turbulence when a blade passes through the tower’s wind shadow (for this reason, the majority of HAWTs use an upwind design, with the rotor facing the wind in front of the tower). – They require an additional yaw control mechanism to turn the blades toward the wind.
