Trent Brome writes on his Facebook page:
Arlington, WY – avg annual wind speed of 31mph, gusts above 110mph, seems like a great place for a wind turbine ….right?
Photos from Feb 1, 2011 as the cold air mass that formed Snowzilla barreled through. The wind chill in the area from yesterday was extreme, -54F !!
0453 AM EXTR WIND CHILL PUMPKIN VINE 41.05N 105.46W 02/01/2011 M-54.00 F ALBANY WY DEPT OF HIGHWAYS
A new record low was set in Cheyenne:
RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHEYENNE WY 523 PM MST TUE FEB 01 2011 ...RECORD DAILY LOW HIGH SET AT CHEYENNE WYOMING... A RECORD DAILY LOW HIGH WAS SET TODAY AT CHEYENNE WYOMING. THE OLD RECORD WAS MINUS 5 SET IN 1899. THE NEW RECORD LOW HIGH IS MINUS 9.
Combine cold temperatures that make steel brittle along with gusty winds, and you have a Titanic recipe for disaster. For those that will argue that I’m being unfair to the promise of wind power, I welcome you to provide photos of any power plant in the USA that has been collapsed due to weather. Downed power poles sure, but power sources?
h/t to Eric Nielsen for the photo
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UPDATE: While the Facebook page source of these photos shows them dated yesterday, Feb 1st, it appears the event actually happened November 25th. A similar photo here:
http://www.windaction.org/pictures/30961
The same author, Trent Brome, submitted them. It is unfortunate he did not make note of the correct date on his facebook page, and given a strong storm had just passed, I had no reason to expect otherwise. I apologize for not checking further. Thanks to V Marti for pointing out the other website link above. – Anthony
OMG This thing simply melted!!!!
So, HOT is COLD q.e.d.
No-one has mentioned ice on the blades. This can cause imbalance in the rotor due to uneven shedding of the ice which would certainly be enough to cause high oscillatory loads at the hub.
Freezing rain would be as disastrous for windmills as it is for aircraft and helicopters. Are windmills designed to cope with this?
Ran into a gentleman who was part of a careful study of alternative energy sources up in Cheyenne Wyoming on the Warren AFB.
You guessed it: wind don’t work. It’s expensive and unreliable.
Kind of funny to see an institution built to fight WW III having a green initiative for energy.
It would be funny to see a delay in the launch sequence for nuclear missiles because the wind wasn’t blowing just right.
I’m sure oil drilling rigs have also failed due to weather. Especially offshore rigs due to waves, hurricanes, et cetera. And there must have been a few lightning strikes that set the oil on fire…
Tom,
“As for the claim that they have worse CO2 output than coal… erm… well… to be polite, can you cite a source for that? An average windmill being built today will generate the same energy as around 9000t of oil.”
Wind farms have to be backed up Tom, if they are to provide more than an insignificant amount of power. That means gas fired power stations on spinning back up. That’s the rub – the killer punch. Most articles I’ve read by intependant engineers (as opposed to wind industry lobby groups) say that windfarms make little or no improvement to co2 emissions. And if the spinning backup comes from coal, the improvement is actually negative.
SteveE at February 2, 2011 at 8:50 am suggests that I am exagerating the consences of being dependent upon windpower for 30% or more of total electricity generation. As noted, I monitored the daily generation of windfarms in December 2009 and January 2010. For a period of 3 weeks these windfarms were producing no more than 8% of their rated output and in the main nearer only 1% to 3%. Probably during this period, they produced little if any net contribution to the national grid given that power is required to heat and turn the rotors when there is no wind and extreme cold. If, in 2009/10, the UK had been reliant for 30% of its energy needs on windpower, we would have had around a 30% shortfall in energy leading to extreme power rationing. In fact, for the better part of a 6 week period except for a few odd days here and there, they were not generating anything remotely approaching their designed criteria but I am only focusing on the 3 week spell when we had a blocking high weather front sitting almost directly over the UK..
According to figures compiled by the Office of National Statistics, in the winter of 2008/9 there were some 36,700 more deaths compared to summer months and 12,000 more deaths than the winter average for the previous decade. This was due to the cold weather conditions encountered during the winter of 2008/9 and in particular old people being unable to properly heat their homes (due to the expense of fuel). See for example:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230650/Fuel-firms-facing-criticism-number-winter-deaths-reaches-highest-level-decade.html
The fact is that in the UK, we have an aging population and much poor quality housing stock. A lot of homes are old, draughty, damp and not well insulated. Old people are particularly vulnerable especially to cold conditions which have a lot of knock on effects. I am not talking merely about hypothermia but point out that many illnesses are exacerbated by the cold, and of course these cold conditions can lead directly to flu and pneumonia which are huge killers in old people.
In the UK we have for some time had an extremely poor record with respect to winter deaths. See for example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1754561.stm wherein it is observed that the UK has the worst record in Europe for winter deaths. This is no doubt partly due to the dampness of our climate and the poor quality of housing stock and probably also the poverty of old people.
The winter of 2008/9 was a cold winter but there were no power cuts and yet it led to an additional 12,000 deaths (over and above the 1998/2007 winter average). Now imagine the situation where we have equally or more cold conditions and homes are without electricity and heating for say 8 to 10 hours a day for a continuous period of 3 weeks (or slightly more). It is easy to see how that figure of an extra 12,000 deaths would sky rocket. The majority of old people may cope with power cuts for 2 or 3 days but not for a continuous period of 21 or more days. This would have a drastic effect on their health. I do not consider that it is any exaggeration to say that in these circumstances, potentially, we are talking about hundreds of thousands of extra deaths.
You may argue that people in the past survived without electricity. Well that is true but no doubt mortality rates (as a percentage) were high 80 to 100 years ago. One problem is that conditions are very different to say the 1930s and 40s. In this period, houses were heated by coal and this was delivered direct to the door. Indeed, many houses had cellars which contained coal bunkers (nowadays these cellars have been converted into basement flats). Accordingly, to get some coal often one only had to venture down the stairs to the cellar. People no longer live like this. Indeed in many homes the fire places have been removed or boarded up. More than 99% of homes are reliant upon electricity for heating because electricity is required to run all forms of central heating. The reality is that nowadays, old people would not be well prepared for a cold winter and would not be able to withstand the effects of deep power cuts for prolonged periods.
Wind power is simply incapable of providing energy security. This is blatantly obvious and this hair brained scheme should be dropped forthwith. The UK like all other countries requires reliable energy produced as cheaply as possible.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/31/3126199.htm
Check out this volcano lightning.
Eddie
It is ironic that a man-made device designed solely to harvest the power of the wind cannot stand up to the wind. Meanwhile, down in Texas, home to the largest collection of wind turbines in all 50 States, there are rolling blackouts, because there isn’t enough power. It’s laughable.
Get the facts on this unreliable, undispatchable, unsustainable source of power at
http://www.windpowerfraud.com.
Back along about 1979-1980, any number of wind turbines were constructed in the Palm Springs, CA area. 50% tax credit, i.e., the state paid half. Within 1 year, most were no longer turning. These things have seals, bearings and gears, thus need preventive maintenance. The less high ones are exposed to lots of particulate matter, which means more frequent seal replacement, but even the really tall ones will also need seal replacement.
Modern wind turbines generate huge amounts of noise, which translates to lots of significant vibration, which translates to lots of mechanical failure.
These things are but hugely expensive follies.
The same is true of all solar devices. No one knows just how long any will last in actual use, or what maintenance costs will be, except that maintenance will be very costly. Even if amortized at a low rate of interest, over as long as 50 years, the cost per KW hour is many times the cost of natural gas, let alone coal.
It is way past the time that sound engineering economics were applied. The actual costs per KW hour would be seen to be horrendous over time if that were done, and affordable only for the wealthy.
And all on account of a trace gas in the atmosphere which is insignificant as far as the temperature of the atmosphere is concerned.
We’ve had at least two rolling blackouts here in Texas today. The grid administrator, ERCOT, has declared a power emergency, citing reduced generation capacity due to the cold weather. Something about some coal plants having water main breaks. Ha! I suspect the wind turbines in West Texas that almost caused us havoc last summer probably went haywire with the high winds that have been blowing the last two days. In any event, the fact that the Federal government has been hampering the construction of new electrical generation facilities (nuclear and coal) is my opinion part of the reason for today’s blackouts. And, I fear, more will be on the way in the future.
This is a matter I will look into further as things get back to normal.
I wonder if the owner of the crumpled windmill had insurance to cover the wather related loss of the asset. This particular wind mill will not be supplying any electricity to the grid in the future. The subject of power intermittency was discussed at the recent VerdeXchange 2011 meeting
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/from-a-utilitys-gordian-knot-to-a-policy-makers-blueprint/
“SCE’s Michael Hertel described what he called a Gordian knot. AB 32, California’s nation-leading greenhouse gas emissions reductions law, and the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES), requiring state utilities to obtain one-third of their power from renewable sources by 2020, will not only drive the growth of renewables capacity, Hertel said, but also necessitate new natural gas-burning power plants or result in serious power supply problems.”
“Renewable power is incredibly intermittent,” Hertel said, referencing the utilities’ notorious discomfort with the variability of solar energy and wind power. He showed a graph of rising and falling wind power generation in the wind-rich Tehachapi region and another graph of solar energy variation over a twenty-four-hour period.
“As the power fluctuates, during the day or seasonally, you have to have load following generation to fill in the gaps,” Hertel said. Load following is dictated by regional and local regulation and has to be able to generate as much power as is needed without hesitation.
“The only thing we have that will work fast right now is natural gas-fired thermal capacity,” Hertel explained. Due to transmission system complexities, the new natural gas generating capacity must be built locally. But local air quality regulations prohibit that”
There is a focus currently in CA to address the intermittent nature of wind and solar with energy storage
@John Kewhr says:
I nominate the Chinese and their Thorium MSR reactors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gorgonio_Pass_Wind_Farm#History_and_governance
This began to be built in the early 1980’s. I drove past it many times from the very beginning heading out to recreational areas in the desert like Joshua Tree National Monument and/or the Colorado River in Arizona. A tiny percentage of them are stopped at any one time presumably down for maintenance but I never saw one with any obvious damage. Currently there are over 3000 units in this windfarm reliably cranking out 615 megawatts.
I don’t know where they’re building all of them in Texas but I occasionally see a blade on a flatbed truck on its way to somewhere. Texas has installed capacity of nearly 10 gigawatts, 3 times as much as the next closest state (Iowa). Texas isn’t into stupid environmental crap, there isn’t a single statewide office not held by a Republican, we have all major kinds of electrical generation, no lack of fossil fuels, we sued the EPA to prevent CO2 regulation under the Clean Air Act, our budget is balanced, and you’d hardly know there’s a recession going on here. We have all kinds of electrical generation here. What’s delivered to my home is a mix of nuclear, natural gas, and hydro-electric all of which are within a half-hour’s drive with a major hydro-electric generator about 10 minutes away by boat. Bet your bottom dollar that if Texas has that much wind turbine generation that it is practical and profitable.
I’m sure no-one will read this, but I have to correct you anyways. 2 coal power plants in Texas were taken out in the weather today causing rolling blackouts. Why is the weather to blame you ask? Frozen pipes. Not one, but 2 power sources. Granted they weren’t *destroyed* but they were rendered unusable for long enough to cause huge amounts of trouble statewide.
To Tom
A couple of pieces of information. Wind Turbine emit ultra low frequency waves from the pressure of the blades passing in front of the tower. Some people within a mile have real problems with this…like sea sickness doesn’t affect everyone. ULF waves have been identified as have real affect on part of the brain. They research these as a weapon over long distances. So the person worrying about migraines is completely justified. I personally know two sets of people all positive about industrial wind turbines…well that is till they built them a couple thousand feet from their houses. The sound emits out and not down under the tower so don’t give I don’t hear anything when I am under them.
Concerning birds….wind turbines do kill thousands of raptors a year many federally protected. Operators Altamont, CA has an out of court settlement with the Audubon Society right now to take down lots of turbines because they are killing eagles, hawks, owls, falcons, etc. If a location such as where you work doesn’t have these birds then obviously they aren’t going to be harmed. Norway is having a real problem with lots and lots of Sea Eagles dying. NJ with only 5 turbines killed one of only 26 protected peregrine falcons in the first years…wait till the years roll by with thousands of these turbines.
Most onshore industrial wind turbines would be lucky to have a capacity factor of 30% many are 15% and they tend not be working when peak electricity is needed. That is called Capacity Value which wind turbines have a value of ZERO. Capacity Vlue is the likely hood you can turn it on when you need it. Unlike a nat gas or nuke plant which are near 100%.
I won’t get into the general harm of thousands of miles of wires and industrial space that these turbines create. Many eastern states are destroying their last open space for these industrial turbines which require mile upon mile to just general a fraction of one small nat. gas plant. Most of these turbines are tax/rate payers grabs or from artificial target created by political who many times turn around and jump over to the wind energy company once they are out of office. See Gov of Maine Baldacci who signed the law and then sucked up the tax and rate payer money…some while in office!
Who is responsible to take these down once the joke is over?
Southern California Edison has selected 250 MW worth of solar bids from companies able to produce solar electricity for 20 years for less money annually than the 20 year levelized cost of energy of a combined-cycle natural gas turbine power plant.
Southern California Edison buys 20 years of Solar for less than the levelized cost of nat gas:
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/02/01/sce-buys-20-years-of-solar-power-for-less-than-natural-gas/
They could have purchased ten times as much if they’d wished.
We seem to be looking at something under $0.11 kwh.
Not exactly. Chernobyl wasn’t built or operated according to best-practice standards; this windmill presumably was.
“Combine cold temperatures that make steel brittle along with gusty winds, and you have a Titanic recipe for disaster. For those that will argue that I’m being unfair to the promise of wind power, I welcome you to provide photos of any power plant in the USA that has been collapsed due to weather. Downed power poles sure, but power sources?”
Yeah, you are being unfair to wind’s potential. The first link is a partial collapse of a power plant in the USA during a flood. I believe it was a fuel oil powered plant. Wind turbines could potentially be resistant to flood damage, with proper design.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~neredwil/35flood.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100226-water-energy-climate-change-dams-nuclear/
Plus, for a fair comparison, one would include the entire power source stream from extraction to power production. Over the years, floods have put coal mines out of commission for stretches at a time. I’m sure natural gas and oil drilling platforms have been demolished by inclement weather in the past. I’m sure that coal barges and trains have been disrupted by inclement weather, as well as natural gas and oil pipelines. These supply disruptions are mitigated by having reserves available within the supply chain. In the same way, renewable energy reserves can be utilized via a well-connected grid and pumped storage technologies. Where one turbine or even a dozen fall, they can be supplanted with excess capacity from another point in the grid while repairs are made. Some of this redundancy is built into the grid already. For example, all power plants need maintenance or experience failures, and when one is down, the others fill in the gaps.
In addition, fossil fuel extraction and power production can experience large-scale failures and risks. Wind power failures are generally localized.
http://www.usmra.com/saxsewell/historical.htm
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/07/us-energy-explosion-idUSTRE61619Q20100207
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill
Plus there are the public health concerns, earthquake damage, water supply usage, inequitable distributions of resources, excessive gov’t subsidies, environmental concerns and the fact that the resources won’t last forever.
Hey, I could go on, but the point is that different power sources have strengths and weaknesses. Since fossil fuel power plants are housed in buildings, they can be hardened to withstand heavy weather. Wind turbine towers are structures that are a bit more susceptible to heavy winds. Engineers can figure out how to deal with harsh environmental extremes. I’m sure somebody has learned from this particular turbine failure experience.
So, fossil fuels have gotten us this far, and they have done great things for people. Nevertheless, they won’t last forever. Why not get some investment and experience going with extracting and using renewables now so people don’t have to worry about digging around frantically for resources by 2150 (or whenever fossil fuel reserves run low)?
These are fair and comprehensive analyses of wind power, with references to experts.
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/41869.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO3V2uXTM6k
Is this a contest to see how many people can post videos of that same windmill going KaBlooey? Boring. Come back with a video of a wind turbine chucking a 10-foot blade through a $250,000 solar array a half mile away. That’s what I want to watch.
To Nigel S: I think you’re absolutely correct. I suspect turbine blade failure, followed by severe lateral vibration and torquing. The door may not have been adequately designed for torquing load. In any case, vibration switches could have prevented tower failure.
But the weak link in wind power isn’t the blades or the turbine or the tower. It’s the subsidies that enable building them. Engineers can solve all the problems but that one.
Coach Springer says:
February 2, 2011 at 8:26 am
“A Question: It taks a subsidy to erect a wind turbine. When it fails, does it take a subsidy to replace it? I’m thinking yes, this creates a corporate/government entitlement program in pursuit of a utopian fantasy.”
All electrical generation gets subsidized to encourage growth in total capacity. Typically it’s in the form of tax incentives. Wind subsidies in the US are much smaller than nuclear subsidies and nuclear is much smaller than ethanol subsidies although ethanol and electricity aren’t really in the same category. Ethanol subsidies are the only ones ill-considered and significant in size AFAIC. Total state of Texas subsidies given to wind generation is less than $3 million. Agricultural subsidies are closer to $3 billion as a point of comparison. A larger source of “green” sourced electrical subsidies is voluntary contributions by consumers. You can choose to purchase “green” electricity from your electric company in Texas and pay modest premium for it. There’s more demand for green electricity than there is green electricity to be sold so consumers wanting to go green still end up purchasing non-green when the green source is exhausted.
http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/energy/subsidies/
“Downed power poles sure, but power sources?”
OK, these are not all “collapses”, but weather often causes major damage to any number of facilities, including energy-related facilities. Bad luck/bad design/bad construction affects just about anything people build. Brief search turned up many examples ….
AURORA, Colo. — Frigid weather shut down an Aurora power plant Tuesday morning when a malfunctioning fire-suppression system sprayed water on transformers, triggering sparks, an Xcel Energy spokesman said. “It is definitely weather-related,”
—————
Rita caused significant damage offshore including:
* 66 platforms destroyed, with 32 more suffering extensive damage.
* 13 MODUs broke their moorings and were set adrift.
* 1 jackup rig was sunk, with 7 jack-ups and 2 semi-subs experiencing extensive damage.
——————-
Power Plant Suffers Serious Storm Damage
The Sunflower Station power plant in Holcomb [KS] suffered what is expected to be more than $1 million in damages.
http://media.graytvinc.com/images/cooling+tower+small.jpg
————–
A fierce tornado damaged one of six critical cooling towers at an Oklahoma power station. The loss of the 115,000 GPM tower was severely limiting power generation.
——————
On the 1st November 1965, during high winds, three out of a group of eight cooling towers at Ferrybridge ‘C’ Power Station collapsed, with the remaining towers sustaining severe structural damage.
http://www.knottingley.org/images/towers1.jpg
Barry says: “Who is responsible to take these down once the joke is over?”
The wind power company. Here’s a clause from a typical wind farm lease:
“Site Clearance and Restoration: …Within twelve months after termination of this Lease in accordance with Paragraph 7.2, above, Lessee shall remove all Wind Farm equipment and material to a depth of 48 inches and shall restore the land to essentially the same condition it was in as of the Initiation Date, including returning the land to substantially the same contours and elevations…” There’s more, but that’s the answer to your question.
Correction please; we lost a couple generation units (Oak Grove and Sand Hill generation plants ) plus nat. gas pipleline pressures dropped and gas peakers would have been problematic … so we lost about 10% of generating capacity according to the experts:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Power-Grid-Taxed-Rolling-Blackouts-Ordered-115093224.html
People in residences were mentioning the low gas pressures: http://www.allenonline.com/fusionbb/showpost.php?post/125087/
… and not that T. Boone’s plans had inherent any problems …
.
Looks to me like the blade control system malfunctioned since the blade angle is flat (perpendicular to the wind). This would result in very high windmill rotational speed and drag causing the tower to fail in very high winds. The tower failure doesn’t look to be a brittle failure.
The first thing I thought of when I saw the pics was that it looked a bit like an Imperial Walker face down in the snow on Hoth after Luke Skywalker got through with it, rather than T. Boone needing to see a doctor about some ED treatments for his bird choppers.