![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/
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Generally speaking, there are several strategically placed big red “emergency stop buttons” so that the technicians can do maintenance work without killing themselves.
Maybe the thieves think they have discovered a sustainable supply of copper.
Haha
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.wordpress.com
Louis:
At May 28, 2014 at 6:40 pm you ask
Several people have given the correct reply that a special motor is rarely installed but the generator is used in reverse so it acts as a motor.
And several have correctly said the turbine rotor needs to be intermittently turned to avoid bearings from seizing: the turbine blades, rotor and shaft are heavy and their weight squeezes lubricant from load points to create ‘dry’ zones in the bearings. This alone is sufficient to require occasional turning of the turbine because starting a turbine with a ‘dry’ bearing would cause high wear of the bearing and shaft.
But there has been no mention of the main reason for turning the turbine when the wind does not turn it for long periods. The weight of the turbine loads the shaft at one end. The shaft could settle in one orientation with resulting significant creep distortion, and this is avoided by occasional turning of the turbine. This creep distortion must be prevented or the distortion would provide catastrophic vibration of the operating turbine.
(Creep is permanent deformation under load.
For example, the weight of a chair on a floor covering provides elastic deformation of the covering which recovers when the chair is moved. But if the chair is not moved for a long time then the covering creeps so when the chair is moved then depressions can be seen where the chair legs were.)
Richard
It appears that large wind turbines do require a large amount of energy to operate. The information regarding this consumption has been assimilated here:
http://www.aweo.org/windconsumption.html
Much of this information comes from a Swedish graduate student specializing in hydrogen and wind power, as posted in a Yes2Wind discussion. Also see the Danish Wind Industry Association’s guide to the technology. The rest comes from personal correspondence between experts and from industry spec sheets.
This may not be a definitive study but nevertheless makes interesting reading.
Recycling in action …
Slightly OT, but can anyone comment on a Q I heard many years ago and couldn’t answer: why are the blades “leading” (in front of pivot, upwind) rather than “trailing” (behind pivot, downwind)?
…can anyone comment on a Q I heard many years ago and couldn’t answer: why are the blades “leading” (in front of pivot, upwind) rather than “trailing” (behind pivot, downwind)?
I think it is because turbines work better in smoothly flowing air and behind the pivot, downwind, there is more turbulence, due to nonstreamlined flow around the the mast.
Martin A
Sensorman:
The reason most turbines are upwind design is that you avoid having the blades travel in the shadow of the tower. Less air flow behind the tower would cause the rotation to be less smooth.
Sensorman:
You ask at May 29, 2014 at 12:29 am
The support structure for the turbine provides turbulence in the wind. Upwind turbines (in front of the support) do not sample this turbulent wind while downwind turbines (behind the support) do.
Despite this, some very small turbines (e.g. mounted on buildings) do sample downwind.
Richard
I am devastated to learn that one of the most important books of the horrible 20th century, The Life & Opinions of Zacharias Lichter by Matei Călinescu (original title: Viaţa şi opiniile lui Zacharias Lichter) was never translated to English.
It was published in Bucharest, 1969, swiftly translated to Hungarian and published under the title “Zacharias Lichter élete és nézetei” in 1971. However, in 1973 the author got a Fulbright grant and defected to the US, where he became a professor of comparative literature at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana until his death in 2009. Following this move on direct orders from Nicolae Ceaușescu all copies of his book were scraped from libraries all over Romania and his name was deleted from catalogues.
Zacharias Lichter, a homeless Jewish prophet preaches an ideal society of thieves and beggars, where thieves steal from beggars while beggars live on scraps offered by thieves, closing the economic cycle. At that time we read it as a perfect allegory of Communist society, where thieves were in charge. However, history seems to have a wonderful capacity for innovation, because corporations living on subsidies are nothing but high profile beggars, presumably financed by taxes collected on sales of stolen goods to fences. Therefore copper thieves and salvage yards have an important role to play in keeping the wind business running smoothly, providing much needed environmentally friendly recycled metal and handsomely contributing to its financial assets.
I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about wind energy but I had no clue there was a ton of copper in a turbine. Upthread some doubts are expressed of this seemingly exorbitant weight. It doesn’t really matter. If thieves get the notion there is a ton of copper in a wind turbine they WILL be blowing the turbine towers to get at the copper even if its not there. The publication of this in the French newspaper and here and other places will alert I wonder how many thieves?
As I despise wind power and the people who advocate its use I must admit to mixed feelings about thieves destroying wind turbines AKA bird choppers. Is it a crime or civil disobedience?
Sorry couldn’t just send the link form my mini iPad , it never opens for some reason.
They cut the power to the ……….
Trident Energy releases White Paper on auxiliary power for offshore wind farms
New Approaches to Providing Offshore Power – Reducing Risk, Reducing Cost
Want to learn how to reduce the risks and costs of providing offshore power? Read on…
Trident Energy has spotted an opportunity to reduce the risks and costs of providing offshore power. Offshore wind farms are being built in ever deeper, harsher waters. Diesel generators are used to provide power when these are without grid connection – but access for refuelling in this challenging environment is increasingly uncertain. Turbines without power are not an option. Turbine warranties are invalidated, with major implications for insurance and financing. Diesel refuelling costs are very high because of the costs of getting the fuel to the wind farm. The solution is to use the sea to provide the power. A small wave device attached to the wind turbine provides the primary source of power backed up by a diesel generator. This gives a diverse source of auxiliary power to protect turbine warranties and reduces refuelling costs.
A future where our power stations are offshore
Imagine thousands of wind turbines far out at sea. Small, lonely power stations generating clean electricity for our busy lives back on land. Like power stations, each wind turbine needs to be well looked after. Unlike today’s power stations, they are difficult and costly to access. The equivalent of the man in a white van becomes a logistics challenge involving ports, boats, fuel, crew and long journeys in heavy seas. Get there and the waves may be too high to transfer personnel from the boat onto the wind turbine. New solutions are being considered, from helicopters, to offshore accommodation blocks and motherships. All are complex and costly. Ingenious solutions are required to make offshore wind turbines more autonomous, reducing cost and making a vital contribution to this new, low carbon, offshore industry.
Most offshore wind turbines are installed with an on-board diesel generator to provide auxiliary power
One of the basic needs of a wind turbine is the provision of auxiliary power, especially before it is connected to the onshore electricity grid. Power is required for cranes mounted on foundations. Once the wind turbine is installed, further power is needed to provide lighting, heating, clean air systems and to turn over sensitive equipment. Typically, this power is provided by small diesel generators; the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm, had a diesel generator located on each of its 175 turbines. If the connection to the onshore electricity grid is delayed then the diesels may need to provide continuous power for many months. The Riffgat wind farm off the German coast is fully installed apart from the grid connection, delayed for at least 2 years due to the discovery of munitions on the sea bed. This had led to unhelpful headlines such as “Windpark to nowhere … 22,000 litres of diesel burned each month to keep windpark from rusting away”.
Auxiliary power key to risk management and warranty protection for operational wind farms
A robust source of auxiliary power is also required to manage risk in operational wind farms. Wind turbine warranties can be voided if the turbine is without power for more than a few days, radically altering the risk profile and hence insurance requirements of the wind farm. This is reinforced by increasing regulatory pressure – the German regulator requires auxiliary power to be supplied within 12 hours of disconnection from the grid.
Reducing diesel usage reduces the high costs of offshore refuelling and reduces HSE risk
Diesel generators are reliable, proven technology and a trusted solution to the provision of offshore auxiliary power. However, the logistic costs of refuelling and maintaining the diesels are high. This opex cost can account for over 90% of the cost of providing auxiliary power. Limited space on the wind turbine means that fuel tanks are small and refuelling frequent. The equivalent cost of diesel for an offshore wind turbine can be more than five times what it is onshore. Offshore refuelling also carries the risk of an accident when personnel transfer from boat to turbine, or a fuel spill during refuelling. It is clear that new solutions that reduce diesel usage can significantly cut costs and minimise HSE risks associated with refuelling.
Diverse sources of auxiliary power reduce asset risk and protect turbine warranties
If a wind turbine is disconnected from the grid, it becomes reliant on its auxiliary power supply to protect the asset and its warranty. Poor weather can make access for refuelling impossible, leading to the risk of running out of fuel and hence a failure of auxiliary power supplies. Diverse sources of auxiliary power can reduce this risk. In particular, renewable solutions offer diversity as they are not dependent on refuelling and the associated access constraints.
The costs and risks associated with auxiliary power increase as development moves further offshore
The costs and risks associated with auxiliary power increase as development moves further offshore. The London Array is around 20kms from shore, whereas North Sea projects due for development over the next decade are up to 290kms from shore. Transit times from the shore-side logistics base will increase, greatly increasing the costs of existing refuelling solutions, or requiring the adoption of higher cost logistic solutions such as helicopters or motherships. Wave conditions will be more onerous, reducing the weather windows during which access for refuelling is possible and increasing the risk of running out of fuel and losing auxiliary power.
Diesel / renewable hybrid solutions – the future of offshore auxiliary power?
So what does a solution look like? The developers of offshore wind farms are creating amazing projects in a challenging environment and are understandably risk adverse. Diesel generators are proven technology. It is inevitable that diesel generators will continue to be deployed to provide auxiliary power. Rather, solutions should focus on reducing the costs and risks associated with refuelling and maintaining the diesels. In particular, the adoption of hybrid diesel / renewable solutions provides increased diversity and autonomy to the provision of auxiliary power. The renewable technology minimises the cost and risks of refuelling logistics, whilst the diesel remains to back-up the renewable technology and ease adoption amongst project developers.
The advantages of co-located wave generation
Co-located wave generation – a small wave device attached to the wind turbine – offers specific advantages. In particular, during periods of stormy weather when wave height precludes access for refuelling the diesel, the wave device will be producing most power. This minimises the risk of losing auxiliary power, voiding warranties and exposing the asset to damaging conditions. Such solutions need to be tested now so that the lonely, far offshore wind farms that will be developed over the next decade can be more autonomous, reducing the risk and cost of their development and operation.
Trident Energy’s linear generator technology
Trident Energy is developing such an auxiliary power solution, using its proven direct drive linear generator technology. This coverts the up-down motion of waves directly into electricity without the need for intermediate systems such as gearboxes or hydraulics. This makes it simple and reliable. Results from Trident Energy’s recent test programme have also demonstrated the capability to control the generator in real-time, opening the way for energy extraction to be optimised for each individual wave. This low cost, high performance generator enables cost effective autonomous offshore power solutions, reducing the risks and costs of the next decade of offshore wind farm development.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014 at 9:20 am and is filed under Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
« Babcock engaged to deliver Kishorn engineering following funding completion
they missed the huge amount of Rare Earth minerals in the magnets…someone oughta tell em to be more thorough!
A study submitted by an Ian Keith Falconer submitted to the University of Exeter, titled “Metals Required for the UK’s Low Carbon Energy System: The case of copper usage in wind farms”, found here.
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/media/universityofexeter/schoolofgeography/pdfs/epsdissertations/Ian_Falconer.pdf
Has determined that the copper use breakdown for Wind Turbines was as follows:
Generator 0.360 tonnes/MW
Transformer 1.000 tonnes/MW
Cabling within the turbine and tower 0.306 tonnes/MW
Gearbox 0.079 tonnes/MW
Not definitive but a reasonable guideline to provide some indication as the mass of copper used in each turbine.
R E Snape
Don Qioxote, had the things pegged, monsters that need to be jousted with. Show me the common law contract that makes the owners of these things, remove them and re-habilitate the land after they are de-commissioned. They get a free ride from almost all regulations that apply to everyone else. Make them comply to the rules applied to everyone else, remove the subsidies and within six months they will all be derelict and we can salvage the copper.
phillipbratby says:
May 28, 2014 at 11:03 pm
Philip, I remember in the early ’80s being part of a team looking after a huge 24×7 data centre (legacy water-cooled systems etc!) and we had EPO buttons all over the site. One day, a load of VIPs were being shown around the data centre computer rooms and one of them pointed to one of the big red buttons and asked the guide what they did. “Oh,” says he, “they shut the site down in an emergency – like this.” And he pressed the button!! Ooops.
1 ton of copper, 40 meter height, that’s 25 kg per meter or 25 gram per millimeter.
Density is about 9 gram per cubic centimeter. So, about 3 cubic centimeter of copper per millimeter of tower height – equivalent to 30 square centimeters cross section or 5 times 6 centimeter; to transmit a top power of, say 2.5 MW.
That’s not unrealistic. They don’t use very high voltages so you have quite a bit of current, so you need a bit of copper.
rogerknights says:
May 28, 2014 at 7:37 pm
The turbine designers should have built in stronger security and alarm systems. Thieves’ eagerness to strop copper from structures has been well known for decades.
—
Reminds me of a visit to the ancient city of Ephesos, where it was explained to us that the holes in the walls of some ancient building had been left by thieves who stole the bronze claws that had been holding the marble tiles in place. Seems it has been going on for millennia …
Mere copper! There is 350kg of rare earths, mainly Neodymium, per 1.5MW turbine
http://www.waste-management-world.com/articles/print/volume-12/issue-5/features/recycling-rarely-so-critical.html
and this stuff in a presently depressed market is about $100/kg. It is in the field magnets.
Copper was stolen from the Invenergy Orangeville, NY wind project last year, too:
http://www.mywnynews.com/arcade_warsaw/news/top_stories/article_d2c90c0a-1bc0-11e3-adf9-0019bb2963f4.html
I’m with “A.D. Everard,” who says:
“Personally, I wish someone would take a bazooka to them. The windmills, that is, not the thieves.”
This sounds like a case of ‘Ethical Crime’ to me. I find myself strangely on the side of these criminals who are, like Robin Hood, robbing the Rich to protect the Poor from Robber Barons of CAGW. These criminals deserve some recognition or an award. I hope that they jam the blades as they leave to protect the birds and bats too!!
All large rotating machines incorporate a ‘turning gear’.
A small electrical motor that is engaged when the rotating device is not performing its prime function.
In large ocean going vessels, it is used to prevent the crankshaft from developing a permanent bend……..
Many ancillaries will be required to run as well: Oil pumps, cooling and heating systems.
So that these can continue running in the event that the grid is lost, each wind generator is fitted with a small diesel generator system that auto starts upon grid loss!
http://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:632303/FULLTEXT01.pdf
and
http://www.tridentenergy.co.uk/press-releases/trident-energy-releases-white-paper-on-auxiliary-power-for-offshore-wind-farms/
That’s our taxes these thieves are helping themselves to.
Another name for a generator is an “inductive motor”. Whether it “generates” or “motors” depends only on direction of electrical flow. Rotor shafts have considerable mass, so are excellent uniform heat sinks while rotating. However, when stopped, heat rises from the bottom of the shaft to the top. This causes differential expansion or “hogging” – a slight bending of the shaft putting additional pressure on the bearings and increasing eccentricity induced vibration when the shaft is powered again.
This is avoided by maintaining a slow rotation of the shaft (heat rises to all parts of shaft equally). Of course blades are feathered to reduced performed work and hence power requirement. Wind turbines make great fans otherwise. GK
Near where my parents live, there was a single, rather pitiful, windmill on an expensive new housing development (on a flood-plain) that was backed by Prince Charles himself.
Recently the windmill disappeared entirely.
However I doubt that it was stolen. It was probably just becoming too much of a visible embarrassment. It typically seemed to spend a few weeks or months appearing operational, and then a few years not moving at all.