Posted on 08/17/2022 8:57:37 PM PDT by hiho hiho
In the early hours of Feb. 1, one of the spinning blades on a turbine at Portland General Electric’s Biglow Canyon wind farm in Sherman County launched into the night.
The 135-foot piece of fiberglass, wood and metal weighs more than seven tons.
It flew the full length of a football field.
An investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found that the seemingly isolated incident, which has not been publicly reported until now, is part of a pattern of maintenance problems that have undercut production at PGE’s flagship wind farm, shortchanged ratepayers and landowners, and put those who cultivate wheat under the turbines – and their cropland itself – at risk.
After the winter incident, PGE shut down all 217 turbines at the wind farm while it launched a review. The process took months, cut heavily into the project’s energy production at what is typically the windiest season of the year, and turned up numerous other problems at the facility with the potential to impact public safety, records show.
To date, PGE has refused to comment on the results of its review or say exactly what its inspections found. Oregon’s largest electricity provider has since resumed operations for most turbines at Biglow Canyon, saying they are safe.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Pieces of the turbines – hatch doors, metal disks and blade bolts – have routinely fallen off turbines and into the fields below. PGE has failed to report most of those incidents to the state, despite requirements in state rules to operate and maintain the turbines in a safe fashion, and a specific condition in its operating agreement to report any problems that could impact public safety within 72 hours.
Predictable, windmills were known for this since the installation of demos in the 1970s Jimmy Carter era.
I have read that each wind turbine uses about 81 gallons of highly refined lubricants which have to be changed out on a regular basis.
Our Leader Children don't understand facts like these.
So, I know it’s illegal to have the feathers of bald and golden eagles killed by windmills, but can I harvest the meat?
I think you have to catch the airkill off the property and you have to use a net or laundry basket.
Generally, the lubricant change-out is a 36-month cycle. Some companies might do it more often....some less often.
The PSU Greensburg campus had one for the same thing. There was a film detailing the problems that all of a sudden disappeared. With the lightning strikes they figured it was producing power at 47 cents per kw hr.
Unless you’re a member of an indigenous tribe, it’s illegal to have any part of an eagle.
White man’s burden.
Do high cheekbones and recipes count?
The 135-foot piece of fiberglass, wood and metal weighs more than seven tons.
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The material used is in fact carbon fiber and not fiberglass. Carbon fiber is amazing strong, if manufactured correctly. It is, however, difficult to lay up the layers of resin impregnated cloth correctly. If there are wrinkles or voids or if the resin is improperly mixed, the result is a stress point in the material which will then crack and fail. And with carbon fiber, unlike metal which might just bend, carbon fiber will snap leading to catastrophic failure.
Consider all of these blades are made in Chinese factories.
Siemens manufactured the Biglow Canyon wind farm blades in its existing blade plant in Aalborg, Denmark. The blades are glass fiber / resin construction.
Interesting failure....no shredded blade and it appears that all the bolts that fasten the base of the blade to the rotor hub all just snapped off and the blade was launched. That’s the sort of failure that makes one think that all the turbines are vulnerable to the same thing happening.
One interesting feature in this article... I believe it typical that the farmers are all required to sign some sort of a ‘secrecy agreement’ when they sign on to lease their property to a wind farm developer. However, it is intoned in this piece that several of the farmers have gotten together to get legal representation because of all the pollutants (oil and scrap) as well as the fact that they aren’t getting their stipend as tied to the power generation because the things are down so much of the time.
“With the lightning strikes they figured it was producing power at 47 cents per kw hr.”
Interesting - 47 cents per kwh is just below the 52 cents per kwh wholesale price of electricity in Europe as they continue to ‘punish Putin’ by sending their electricity prices through the roof.
By the way, here in Texas, if we did pay 60 cents per kwh for retail power, the average summer electric bill would be over $1200 per month (about half of that in the winter).
Between Palm Springs and San Bernardino, there is San Gorgonio Pass wind farm.
Huge wind mill project.
It surely destroyed a lot of nature!
Whenever I go there, most of the windmills are NOT operating!
Maybe it is my bad luck, but I doubt it!
Liz has joined the chat.
Drive around Upstate NY interstates much and you’ll see a little of blades on the roads lately in transport.
Usually accompanied by at least 2 cars of state troopers.
In case anyone was wondering why response times are so long, here’s yet another reason.
Without Government subsidies the rotary bird killer’s would not exist.
Re-engineering will not “fix” that issue.
In many cases the units that fail are not repaired and another is built to take it’s place.
We lots of them in Texas. When the conditions are right you can see the cloud of dust created by the turbines for miles.
This dog won’t hunt. Like electric cars.
FYI, at least in my state, the state police escorts are off-duty troopers earning extra money. Same for those sitting at work sites with their lights flashing.
It may be part of their union contract that the contractors and wide load drivers must provide for.
San Gorgonio Pass wind farm
______
If you leaving CA on I!0 as many do, you cannot miss it!
2700 windmills.
According to their website it provides like 60MW of power, almost providing enough power to Coachella Valley. Well, it takes almost as much area as Coachella valley settlements.
Nearby Palo Verde Nuclear plant provides more than 50 times of that power, reliably!
Just imagine the monstrosity of fifty San Gorgonios replacing one power plant!
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