I wonder what the incident frequency is for wind turbine fires versus say coal, hydro, or nuclear plants?
From STV Scotland:
Mr McMahon, who captured the spectacular fire in photos, added: “I didn’t hear any explosion or anything, but my wife shouted for me to come down and see the fire.
“There are around 13 or 15 wind turbines in the farm above Ardrossan. They were all off today because of the high winds, so something has obviously shorted out and gone on fire.
h/t to WUWT reader Gordon Daily
UPDATE: BBC reports in the south of Scotland the 50mph winds are knocking down turbines:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-16084013
The fall of global warming… The rise of man(n) made extreme weather, all fueled by the ‘orrible dirty industries of coal and oil, why else would such dirty winds reach such speed and only targeting the poor weak huddled innocent windmills that weren’t really meant for honest hard work? :p
Here are the typical wind speeds for a 2 MW turbine , gearless,variable speed with variable speed pitch control set 255 feet above ground [highest blade point 390ft
cut in wind speed 2.5 m/s
rated wind speed 12 m/s
rotational speed 6-19.s rpm
cut out wind speed 22-28 m/s
survival wind speed 59.5 m/s or 133 mph[ level 3 hurricane?]
blade tip speed 25-80 m/s
So sustained wind gusts over 133 mph can destroy this particular turbines ? The one in Scotland may have different speed specifications
[1m/s x 2.237 = miles per hour]
Dave Springer says:
December 8, 2011 at 1:07 pm
“I didn’t see any adjacent damage, no debris, and am presuming the leaves were already off those trees in the background not blown off. However the tower was isolated and it still could have been a microburst or unreported twister.”
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The blades on the windmill failed to “feather”, and got caught producing lift in a high wind environment, the gear oil overheated and vaporized, leaving metal on metal gears, then things started melting.
It was a failed control of the blade angle.
bawbag
A very wild day back in my homeland. Scottish humour prevailed though – the storm has become known as “Hurricane Bawbag’. (Translation – “Hurricane Scrotum”. “Bawbag” also being a word used to annoy a somewhat troublesome or unpleasant individual.)
“Fire engines attended the blaze..”
Were they at least wind powered? Or did they leave a carbon footprint?
Now imagine that happening to a turbine in the middle of a field of wheat, or near a tinder- dry forestry plantation…
Dorothy, Kansas is calling.
They say…they saw a thin and very tall man mounted on a crippled horse, wearing a long spear, who was attacking the mills during the night. They said that a fat servant accompanied this nightly knight and calling him, several times, “Anthony, Anthony, beware!”
No worries. Tax payers will pay for a new one. Cuz we are just that generous with our hard-earned coinage. Remember when we used to give to the old man with a cup at the corner?
Just compare the thousands of parts , replacement and maintenance of 100 of these mills (a figure which should be multiplied by 39.53 – its avg.yield is only 2.53%) versus only one moving part 100 mw generator. Only bribery/foolishness explain its existence.
@matt v. says: That´s a lot of “spin” 🙂
Top of the news in Scotland is the $11billion it will cost to meet the SNP’s renewable target.
In other words, the £2200/person or £10,000 for the average family. That is enough to rebuild each and every hospital.
This stupid climate policy is just utter madness, particularly for Scotland which has nothing to loose and everything to gain from climate change. Even if the planet were to warm by 6C, Scotland will still not be warm enough for my liking.
clipe says:December 8, 2011 at 3:38 pm
… “Hurricane Irene has been downgraded to a Scottish summer.”
What? Full of midges?
Honest wind industry and Government representatives and agencies state:
1. “Wind turbines will generate on average less than 1/3 of their overrated capacity over a year if they should somehow manage to last that long.”
2. “The wind is always breaking somewhere.”
3. “It is our fervent hope that periods of widespread low wind are infrequent.”
4. “The probability that very low or very high wind output can cope with with peak electricity demand is slight.”
5. “Pumped storage hydro can fill the generation gap during prolonged low wind periods lasting less than 4 hours.”
Global warming gonna cause a major increase in severe weather…
So to fight it, they want us to generate power from wind farms that turn out to be both inoperable during, and vulnerable to, extreme weather events.
Well, we could go with solar…oh wait…. glass panels….extreme weather…
I know, biofuels! Of course, if extreme weather kills off crop production, we’ll have to make a choice between fuel and… food.
On the off chance (way off) that we actually have a problem on our hands, why are they picking mitigation strategies that are worse than the problem?
I want to comment further on the term “survival wind speed “for wind turbines . This speed is the maximum wind speed that the turbine is designed to withstand safely . It is more of a safety consideration very much like designing for 100 year storms in civil engineering work. The turbine may not necessarly immediately suffer damage if this speed is exceeded. Most wind turbines have survival wind speeds of about 50-65 m/s or 112 to 145 mph and this speed is set by national standards . Winds exceeding this level can put the turbine at some risk depending on the individual designs and safety factors used and the incremental amount that the survival wind speed is exceeded
matt v.;
Most wind turbines have survival wind speeds of about 50-65 m/s or 112 to 145 mph and this speed is set by national standards .>>>
Cool. How are they rated for bird slicing? birds per hour? Do they normalize based on the size of the bird? Like if the rating is 4 birds per hour, does a duck count the same as a swallow? Or are they both “one”? And what about bird speed? Can a duck fly as fast as a swallow? An American swallow, or a European swallow? How should I know?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
With our enormous reserves, why would we need any alternative energy production in the U.S.?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/12/08/oil-rich_america_112318.html
one day a wind turbine near the sea will be overloaded by wind and the blades will come flying off and impale an endangered species of whale or something.
matt v. says:
December 8, 2011 at 5:34 pm
I want to comment further on the term “survival wind speed “for wind turbines . This speed is the maximum wind speed that the turbine is designed to withstand safely . It is more of a safety consideration very much like designing for 100 year storms in civil engineering work. The turbine may not necessarly immediately suffer damage if this speed is exceeded. Most wind turbines have survival wind speeds of about 50-65 m/s or 112 to 145 mph and this speed is set by national standards . Winds exceeding this level can put the turbine at some risk depending on the individual designs and safety factors used and the incremental amount that the survival wind speed is exceeded
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If I’m not mistaken, the “survival speeds” of the turbines assume that the blades have been turned so that they do not gain thrust/ force due to their positioning.
I also assume the big windmills can change the angles of their blades.
These fires are actually fairly commonplace. Often what happens is gearbox overheating sets the lubricant on fire or the brakes build up heat causing a fire. It is extremely rare for one of these turbines to last 5 or more years without overhaul of the gearbox.
Ocean current turbines (as opposed to tidal turbines) would operate in a much steadier current and would not be subject to such vagaries of current velocity. Being in much denser fluid as well, they also can provide more power, even out of slower currents.
Why hardly anyone is really doing anything with this I do not comprehend.
These monstrosities on our open lands are a blight. Whoever thought these were a good idea must be the same people who thought using corn for fuel was a good idea.
I still don’t know why people put so much blind faith in wind energy.
My mom, a lifelong Democrat, ( I know, that was her first mistake ) couldn’t believe it when I told her wind farms still need oil to operate. To quote her, ” So how can people say these things are better?”
Not to mention, the number of birds killed by them is far more then any oil or coal company that people love to demonize.
crosspatch says:
December 8, 2011 at 7:25 pm
These fires are actually fairly commonplace. Often what happens is gearbox overheating sets the lubricant on fire or the brakes build up heat causing a fire. It is extremely rare for one of these turbines to last 5 or more years without overhaul of the gearbox.
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IMHO, the picture at the top of the post looks hotter than an oil fire ??
Molten metal at least.