![IMG_20140524_195347[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_20140524_1953471.jpg?quality=83)
Citing an anonymous police source, the daily newspaper said the ring stole metal from wind farms in sparsely populated areas, where they had less chance of being caught.
“They cut the power to turn off the engine propeller motor,” the officer said, noting the thieves broke through the doors at the bottom of the turbines, before using the stairs to reach the engine which is located at the top – often as high as 40 metres off the ground. “By using bolt cutters and makeshift tools they then cut and ripped out the whole metal wiring, which is mostly made of copper,” he said.
The officer said a metal raid of a single wind turbine engine could amount to as much as one tonne of loot. One tonne of copper is estimated to be worth around 4,500 euros on the market.
…
According to Le Figaro, at least 20 such incidents have been recorded recently. Two successful raids and one foiled attempt were reported in March alone.
http://www.france24.com/en/20140528-france-metal-organised-thefts-wind-turbines-copper/
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The BUILDERS of the wind turbines don’t care => THEY make (er, made) THEIR money from the construction tax credits and the financing tax credits to the manufacturer (you can pay for a nice factory in a new city with wind turbine start up money if you don’t care about long term profits!) and from the installation tax credits and carbon credits/rebates on the POTENTIAL of the wind turbine output.
All of those of course are “green energy” subsidies, so the politicians sending the money OUT get all of the glory and glamor.
The SMALL amount of power actually produced does not ever come into play, and the maintenance and periodic repairs are very, very expensive for anything. Much less a small little itty bitty ( 1.5 to 0.5 Mwatt) power plant 300 feet up a tower 60 miles from the nearest supply store. So the maintenance won’t get done by the utility or company that bought the land from the developer/politician/green energy company. In 7 -10 years, less than 10% will be running. Look at the even smaller, easier to maintain turbines in California passes. The 10 and 15 year old turbines are NOT running, and those are in a perfect, near-ideal location!
By the way, why worry about cutting power? Trip the output transformer for the field and steal it too! I’m surprised they haven’t begun blowing the towers down … makes it easier to get to the busted motors and cabling inside.
It is the asinine statements like that from the Australian Greenpeace bloke, that I cancelled my donations to the organisation.
That is the law down here (red state, SE US): Yo don’t even get cash after passing over the ID and having your truck tag recorded. you get a check for aluminum, copper, brass, A/C coils, batteries … everything that pays for recycling. its a royal pain, and I’m not convinced it actually does prevent theft. Just penalizes everybody who is moral and ethical.
I believe the motor’s in there to steer the blades into the wind, not to turn the blades.
lol
well, me think that stealing copper from the wind turbines are pretty safe compared to stealing wiring from a live coal power plant which might be several thousands time more.
RA,
I think you might also find this interesting. It goes beyond the cost of protecting millions of dollars worth of equipment from assault with an access control or alarm system that reports a status from a limited access area. The costs for such is trivial.
These costs are not.
http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/310631/more-realistic-cost-wind-energy
And why is this a bad thing?
john karajas (6:56pm) :
Toni Collette only uses the finest organic free-range carbon-neutral ethical copper available to wire her house.
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2014 at 7:58 pm
What grant or tax credit program gives construction or financing tax credits? The only Tax credit I am aware of in the US is a $0.023 tax credit per KW-hr generated for the first 10 years after construction, given to the energy producer not the manufacturer. See http://energy.gov/savings/renewable-electricity-production-tax-credit-ptc
That would require the wind generator to function and actually produce for the tax credit to continue.
Nice theory. But that ain’t how it works. The turbines finished construction (for example) on 31 December 2012 were eligible for the credit. Those which finished 2 days later (on Jany 2, 2013) were not eligible. Construction peaked (of course!) in late 2012, then immediately fell to 2% of the December levels when the money went away. Remember, RESALES of the finished turbine get the money to the builder, not the future owner who will be shafted by expensive maintenance while generating no power. And, by the way, the real expense maintenance is after 7 and 10 year point!)
More money trails? (And state money is even more corrupt! ) Solyndra for example, made their billions FIRST, then fired the people and went bankrupt after two years.
Following from http://www.newsmax.com/US/wind-power-tax-credit/2013/12/31/id/544617/
I am wondering if the reference to “motor” in the article actually refers to the generator. The article likely was written in French, by a non technical journalist, translated From French to English by a non technical translator and edited by non technical Editors at each end. There is lots of opportunity for error.
It’s possible also that a generator, back-fed electricity could act as a motor and turn a windmill if it was needed for some reason. I question whether such a feature is actually needed as I have seen many windmills sitting in calm air without moving for hours-long time periods.
If a separate motor was needed to rotate the blades to save the bearings, it would only need to be a very small motor of a few horsepower. The blades would be well balanced, the motor would not have to fight the wind, because in those conditions it would not be needed. That motor would not have anywhere near multiple thousands of dollars of copper in it’s windings.
No they are just environmentalists trying to stop the mass slaughter of eagles, birds and bats
How much power runs thru these copper wires, it might seem the power/wind must be off to avoid the plasma wire shortage event.
I’ve been close to a 85,000V wire laying on the ground/grounding.
All I wanted to do was move farther away.
I was ~100 feet away, the pressure waves went thru me like the bass drum at a rock concert.
Be careful out there.
Following from ossqss link above:
May 28, 2014 at 8:43 pm
http://theenergycollective.com/willem-post/310631/more-realistic-cost-wind-energy
GROSSLY EXCESSIVE WIND ENERGY SUBSIDIES
Hmmmn. Actual cost of “free” wind energy is 151.00 to 190.00 per Mwh, eh? Not $3.50?
Chris4692 says:
May 28, 2014 at 9:24 pm
Those motors are very, very large. (Heavier than your car. Turning blades “wings” larger than a 737’s wing, and heavier than a 707 wings. Remember, average capacity is only about 20%. But more than 1/2 of the time they are producing no energy at all. Not even that measly 20%. Some random hours and some random days, they DO produce 100% power. You can’t tell when. Nor where. Nor how long. Which is why Germany often (not always!) pays them to dump that exess, can’t be used energy to the dirt as heat.
So, again, nope. From that same link above.
That is another large motor inside the nacelle. It also has to be continuously energized and controlled or the uncontrolled nacelle movement DOES crack the blades with excess stress.
Add lubricating motors, oil cooling motors, regulator motors and all of the exciter regulator loads ….
Not to mention that big red light on top!
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2014 at 9:22 pm
You apparently did not read the link I provided to the US Energy Department Description of the Production Tax Credit. In order to be eligible for the tax credit for the next 10 years under the program the Energy Producer had to have the facility installed before the program expired on Dec 31, 2012. So not knowing if the program would be extended, the Producers had strong incentive to get them installed before the program expired, and the manufacturers would want the sale and would rush the production, and the installers would hurry the installation.
Your extensive quote says nothing about who receives the credit. Your quote says nothing about a program to subsidize construction. The link I provided is the only tax credit I am aware of that applies to wind energy: it is a production tax credit to the producer, when the energy is produced. This is the program that expired at the end of 2012 and was later extended.
If you know of a construction or manufacturer tax credit, provide an authoritative link.
Awesum!!!.. Good luck to the theives..
[No. Hope they are not killed by their own acts. .mod]
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2014 at 9:42 pm
In response to my comment at 9:24
Of course the amount of energy produced by the generator or its frequency of use has nothing to do with the amount of power needed to turn a set of blades to protect the bearings, or the size of a motor needed to turn the assembly, which is the issue at hand.
The mass of the blades is not that important either. The mass of some of them is going down while the mass of others is going up. They are balanced. Have you ever seen a Corliss Engine? They have a massive flywheel driving a belt. Absent that belt the 12 ft diameter flywheel can be pushed by one hand, not fast, but speed is not needed in this case. There would be inertia to overcome, but if the purpose was to turn the rotors in the absence of wind to protect the bearings, there would be no hurry so there would be little acceleration involved. The bearings may need to be moved to prevent flattening of one side, but it seems to me more likely that the shaft supporting the blades and driving the generator would be more likely to need to be turned to prevent setting a bend in the shaft.
The whole unit could be turned into the wind with a large gear attached to rotate the assembly, a worm gear, and a small motor. Achieving the objective via leverage rather than horsepower.
Louis says:
May 28, 2014 at 6:40 pm
“They cut the power to turn off the engine propeller motor”
—
I thought the whole point of a windmill was to produce power from the wind. Why do they need a propeller motor?
The words used seem a little odd but here is a guess. The blades need to be positioned to the wind so as to get optimal performance. If the turbine is not producing enough power to accomplish the task then power is brought in from an outside source – sort of a search mode to find the wind. The thieves would, I think, pick a night with no wind so there isn’t any power coming out of the tower (and nothing to set off an alarm). Still, the searching mode would have to be stopped and that would require cutting the power. [The towers I can see from my home have turbines that can produce electricity at wind speeds as low as 9 mph. They reach their peak of production at 31 mph and shut down at constant wind speeds above 56 mph.]
http://www.pse.com/inyourcommunity/kittitas/Pages/Wild-Horse.aspx
RACookPE1978 says:
May 28, 2014 at 9:46 pm
I will apply the /sarc
Louis says:
“They cut the power to turn off the engine propeller motor”
—
I thought the whole point of a windmill was to produce power from the wind. Why do they need a propeller motor? Does cutting the power cause the propeller to lock up so it stops turning? Or is there some other explanation?
===
Explanation? Journalists have no idea of the subject they are reporting and don’t bother checking basic facts. But we knew that already.
John F. Hultquist says:
May 28, 2014 at 10:21 pm
Here’s my guess. Any accessories: electrical controls, sensors, aiming motors, other accessory motors, and lights would normally be powered from the grid, not from this particular windmill. The voltages would be from 110v to 480v, (not matching the windmill voltage output) and the accessories would be needed whether this windmill is producing or not. These support requirements would never be met directly from the windmill itself.
Dena: “On the other hand, the salvage yards should be watching out for anybody with a large pile of copper and they should report it to the police.”
In France you cannot sell scrap to a scrap yard without presenting ID which is noted for later inspection in the case of police enquiry.
If you roll up in a van with a ton of cut windings you are going to get spotted very quickly. I guess the thieves must have another route. Higher up the chain maybe.