A £2million, 100metre-tall wind turbine caught fire in hurricane-force winds at Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland, during severe weather
Posted on 12/08/2011 10:36:53 PM PST by george76
Britain was battered by gales of up to 165mph yesterday, leaving a trail of destruction across the country. In one spectacular incident a 300ft wind turbine exploded in flames as it was buffeted by the high winds. Another wind turbine was completely blown down on Wednesday, raising questions about whether wind farms were simply unable to cope with the weather.
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Today temperatures are expected to plummet with blizzards, snowdrifts and black ice expected in the north, and continuing wind and rain in the south.
The flaming £2million wind turbine was in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland. Witnesses said its blades were locked at the time, because the National Grid would be unable to cope with a sudden power surge.
Photographer Stuart McMahon, who took the incredible image, said: ‘The centre of the turbine caught fire first and the flames spread to the covering of the blades.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Too windy for wind turbines! 165mph gales raise MORE questions about wind farms as gusts leave trail of destruction across country
Scottish Power said turbines were switched off .
The storm is also sucking Arctic winds south... a foot on the Scottish hills... a snow risk as far south as Birmingham – the furthest south that snow has been forecast this winter.
It’s that damned global warming.
A £2million, 100metre-tall wind turbine caught fire in hurricane-force winds at Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland, during severe weather
Well...just run heater wires under the roads to melt the snow....so stop putting salt down,
How exactly do you deal with that in 165 mph winds? Climb up there with a firehose? And look at the forests below it. Did they then catch fire?
We drove by a line of those in WV over Thanksgiving. I’d never seen them so close, and they are HUGE. My thought at the time was a prayer that none came tumbling down as we drove by. There’s something creepy looking about them.
I remember in 1991 when it was announced that variable speed generators had been developed for use in the turbines of these windmills. Above a certain wind velocity, they’re designed to “turn off” and just spin.
But one hundred sixty-five mph is really, really fast. I suppose the towers could be built to withstnad 200 mph winds, but how often would those occur and would it be economic overdesign?
From what I understand, then stop when winds reach a certain speed for a set period of time. They do not turn when that happens.
Oh, my! That might be why they catch on fire. These windmills need to spin freely in high winds
The usual approach is to feather the props. Hamilton Standard solved that problem back in the 1930s.
Lots of good comments and photos at the original article. Nasty sarcastic comments about wind turbines
Got a few bugs on this albatross - so to speak.
wow thats pretty spectacular!
The photos look ... Intense. Is anything in Britain meant to withstand massive and sustained hurricane strength winds? I thought the gulf stream led the vast majority of heavy storms away from them.
Not really - depends on the current location of the jet stream, which often puts the British Isles directly in the track of North Atlantic depressions. Incidentally, the 165mph speed was recorded on the top of a mountain (Cairgorm). Speeds at inhabited levels were a lot lower, though still exceptional.
Ah. That sounds much better. I was imagining 165MPH winds going down my little street. Texas is hurricane country but I might well consider going for a bit of a vacation if that was going to happen. We would be without electricity for weeks at least.
I guess it just decided to fall over.
But the spokesman said operators were not paid compensation – ‘constraint payments’ – to shut down yesterday. This happens when operators have to deactivate turbines because the Grid cannot accommodate the energy they produce.
What a deal. They get paid to produce and they get paid when they can produce more than is needed!
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