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
Was Al Gore in town?
They often contain a lot of magnesium to keep the weight down at the top of the tower.
Ya know, if they threw in a diesel generator at the bottom of every one of those windmills, they could keep them running even when there was no wind….
My first impression was that someone was trying to make a windmill that actually worked, a coal-fired windmill.
Here is a link to a burning wind turbine with lots of black smoke as the composite blades catch fire and burn off. Apparently this is quote common. Wonder how the Guardian would play these pictures after seeing the “black” steam from cooling towers or the black smoke coming out of a ship stack in Durban? Follow the link. Lots of photos.
vboring says:
December 8, 2011 at 11:15 am
This wind turbine is an odd failure. The only reason I can think of why it would fail during a storm is from an overspeed condition overheating the transmission or overheating of the brake, but they say that the turbine was stopped to avoid this. And usually mechanical failures result in overspeed failures like the blades spinning out of control and flying to pieces. I guess it could be something like an unsecured electrical cable rubbing it’s insulation off because of the nacelle moving in the wind, but the backfeed protection should have prevented it from turning into a fire.
They have heating built-in to minimise/prevent icing, lubricant thickening and moisture damage.
The cannibal isn’t really eating for hunger. It’s very common among many species for males to kill other males’ cubs. It causes Momma to go into estrus and be ready to start gestating his.
Nature is often kinda violent with this Natural Selection thingy.
I wonder how the offshore windfarms fared
vboring claims that coal fired power stations don’t handle explosive material.
Wrong:- the coal is powdered and blown into the furnaces like a jet of gas, the most efficient way to burn the fuel. Powdered coal actually has more explosive energy than dynamite under the right conditions. It has caused more mine explosions than methane. Luckily coal fired power stations have old but reliable burning technology which has been refined over the years to be very safe for all concerned. And coal fired power stations do not blow over.
I don’t get what all the fuss is about over wind turbine fires in Scotland.
I mean it’s not as if the landscape is covered in dense flammable heather with lots of remote and inaccessible areas with no guaranteed local water supply which are many miles away from the nearest town with a fire station which probably only has one fire engine anyway.
No wait, I was thinking of somewhere else … that’s exactly what Scotland is like!
Well, if you read the news properly, it was not due too the windstrenth because they were all the mills, meaning that they were not spinning. The blades are then turned in such a way that the wind cannot force them towards an other position. So waht was the cause? Some shortage in an elelctrical circuit like it can happen in all electrical devices, only it seems that they forgot the fuses?
Is this a serious article trying to tell us that all wind farms are rubbish and dangerous and that coal mining and oil exploration is save? May be you can tell that to all those wives of al those thousands of mineworkers that died during there work. May be tell the relatives of all the people who died because of the blasts of gasterminals or during oil drilling activities?
****
John Marshall says:
December 9, 2011 at 2:47 am
vboring claims that coal fired power stations don’t handle explosive material.
Wrong:- the coal is powdered and blown into the furnaces like a jet of gas, the most efficient way to burn the fuel. Powdered coal actually has more explosive energy than dynamite under the right conditions.
*****
Exactly. vboring is, well, very boring. Several times while I worked at a coal plant, there were plant-shaking “booms” as powdered coal/air exploded in the fuel pipes before entering the boiler. Everything from the pulverizers thru exhausters & to the boiler was overbuilt like a Sherman tank, so the boiler just went on running with no effect, other than shaking the place up. The only thing we did was identify the offending pulverizer, examine the coal/air pipes for damage (none) & let the pulverizer grind out completely (it only takes minutes) to make sure no possible sparks/flames remained in it. The boilers were built to withstand these events.
Obvious failure due to climate change warming. This shouldn’t affect the capacity factor… will it?
Not to worry, the expensive spinning reserve, can be decreased, NOW! GK
vboring says:
December 8, 2011 at 11:15 am
Gas plants occasionally have explosions during construction of the gas connection, but coal plants are a long since mature technology and don’t involve any explosive materials.
This wind turbine is an odd failure…..
_________________________________________
No it is not. It is a largely UNPUBLICIZED failure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfHxINzGeo
Vertical turbines are less efficient than horizontal ones, but they do have a larger range of wind speed they operate in. With the weight of the turbine on the shaft, there are issues when you try to work on the motor.
15 seconds, caught on film
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16115139
Blades locked but the gearbox and generator housing are rotating
Dave Springer was obviously writing before the full report in the Daily Telegraph was available. There was at least one other wind turbine failure, as noted in later reports one of which Anthony has added to the original posting. Coldingham in the borders is not situated on top of a mountain Part of that broken windmill came down within a few yards of the road. Fortunately it hit no houses but some had to be evacuated.
Winds of 160 mph are rare even in Scotland but winds of more than 60 mph are not, even in England.
mwhite says:
December 9, 2011 at 2:27 am
I wonder how the offshore windfarms fared
It turns out that the construction of a new UK offshore windfarm is being delayed by “Unseasonally” poor weather in the North Sea!!
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/business/great_yarmouth_vessel_contract_to_help_delayed_sheringham_shoal_windfarm_project_1_1148493
As we have had a remarkably mild end of year so far, I dread to think what would happen when a REAL North Sea gale blows up!
Must be due to Global Warming…
I saw the turbine fire picture on your site yesterday and behold it appeared on BBC Newsnight here in the UK plus on the front of a popular UK daily paper . It reminded me of spectacullar pictures of World war II Battle of Britain aerial dogfights ( aeroplanes ) where things went up in smoke!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8946352/Second-storm-to-hit-UK-on-Monday.html
Thank god things like nuclear power plants and coal-fired plants *NEVER* catch fire or have catastrophic failures. Duh. What is the point of stupid posts like this, Mr. Watts? It only makes you look desperate.
ROM says
The crazy drive by governments everywhere towards the grossly over rated and hideously expensive and grossly inefficient wind power is one of the main reasons for the increasing fuel poverty being experienced by the poor and oldest particularly in the UK and other parts of Europe.
———-
Didn’t Willis show a graph in which the projected costs for wind power by 2016 were only slightly above coal? Seems that the story about wind power being expensive is either made up or is quickly becoming out of date as economies of scale kick in.