Posted on 01/22/2023 7:41:15 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
HERMAN, WI (AP) — A company that operates a southern Wisconsin wind farm is investigating what caused part of a wind turbine and its blades to plummet to the ground, leaving debris strewn across a field.
No one was injured Wednesday night when the blades and top portion of a wind turbine collapsed in Dodge County, near the town of Herman.
The turbine, which is part of the Butler Ridge wind farm, stands about 400 feet above the ground, according to the National Weather Service.
Mark Dietrich, whose father owns the property where the collapse occurred, told WISN-TV that a nearby resident said that when it collapsed “they both heard it and it shook their house."
Dietrich said he’s glad nobody was hurt, although massive pieces of debris were left scattered across the ground and there is a large crater from the impact.
“That’s a lot of weight coming down at one time. It left quite the crater,” he said.
NextEra Energy Resources owns the turbine. The company said in statement that it believe that “this was an isolated incident as turbine malfunctions are rare."
The company said it is working to determine “the cause of the turbine failure and assessing other turbines on site as a quality-control measure.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
My aunt remembers this one built in 1977 on the High Plains near Clayton NM. Removed in 1981. She said you could hear the “Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh” all the time.
https://windmillstech.com/an-overview-of-some-historic-wind-turbines-part-2/
The Mod Series
The wind turbines developed in the mod series were very expensive and meant to be a technology drivers.
Mod 0A
Mod 0 and its improved variant Mod 0A were developed by a contractor Westinghouse. The Mod 0A used a two-blade rotor 38 m in diameter and had a downwind configuration to drive a 200 kW generator. The Wind turbine was installed in 1977 in Clayton, New Mexico in a small municipality.
The Turbine had a lattice tower and flaps on the partial span of the rotor for speed control. It was in operation for 4 years until it was removed in 1981.
Another reason why wind farms render the surrounding real estate uninhabitable by humans.
Wind farms enough to power the whole of the US would need an area slightly larger than the state of Nevada. And make the entire area uninhabitable. So when you’re converting to wind energy, don’t forget to decide which state you don’t want people living in any more.
Having retired after 40-years in the mining industry, I am curious about what kind of closure/reclamation plan is required and what is the reclamation bond dollar amount?
I suspect nothing like what is required of the mining industry.
Having retired after 40-years in the mining industry, I am curious about what kind of closure/reclamation plan is required and what is the reclamation bond dollar amount?
I suspect nothing like what is required of the mining industry.
Add to that brittle fracture due to the low temps these bolts are loaded under.
Possibly inferior Chinese fasterners?
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