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Speaking of this kind of skepticism, 57 truckloads of concrete for one wind turbine seemed like an awful lot, so I did some rough math. Turns out 57 truckloads is probably right. Jesus. I assumed a pad-and-pedestal foundation where the pad is a cylinder 60'|18.3m dia. and 4'|1.2m thick, and the pedestal is also a cylinder but 20'|6m dia. and 4'|1.2m high. Total volume of both is about 465 yd³|355m³. Since the typical truck holds about 8 yd³|6m³, that's about 58 truckloads, which is surprisingly close to the 57 they stated.

Each wind farm has a substation too, which will use some quantity of concrete for equipment pads. And some wind farms built in remote areas have to have their own transmission infrastructure built -- towers, with their own foundations, and switching substations, with again more equipment foundations. You could say concrete is the foundation of our economy... chortle chortle... groan...

EDIT: added SI units for our rest-of-the-world pals



I never try to get too much into the math, but the amount of concrete required for X is staggering in general, even at small scale.

Recently built a foundation for my deck, what was estimated on the concrete tube for pillars was nowhere near what was actually needed.




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