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Gaia's Sense Of Humour

By Boquisucio on December 9, 2011 | | Comments (11)
In Scotland this week, it got so windy that the greenie-weenie windmills spontaneously burst into flames.



Full article: HERE

BOQ

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11 Comments

By BillT on December 9, 2011 11:39 AM
Wind turbines have been bursting into flames all over Europe for the past five years, Boq. It's a dirty little secret the greenies have been trying to keep under wraps.

Another dirty little secret they've been trying to keep under wraps is that the self-immolating turbines were made -- surprise! -- in China.
 
By Joe in N Calif on December 9, 2011 12:07 PM
Not just in Europe.  Some here in the States too.  I'm wondering why the, for want of a better term, automatic feathering in high winds, has been failing.  Get spinning too fast, bearings overheat, and POOF!
 
By MikeD on December 9, 2011 2:17 PM
Those environmentally concious wind turbines also have a nasty tendancy to massacre bird populations:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574376543308399048.html
 
By Boquisucio on December 9, 2011 2:33 PM
Sounds like a CASUS BELLI for Angry Boyds
 
By Joe in N Calif on December 9, 2011 2:55 PM
Mike, here in CA there have been suits blocking new windfarms because of that.  And, if my memory serves me, a few have been shut down or had to reduce production, because of the migratory birds.

Kind of ironic - the same people who scream about wanting alternative energy are the same ones who fight against wind farms (killing birds and having to build transmission lines), solar farms (ground water issues and having to build transmission lines),  tidal power experimental stations (sea critters, magnetic fields, and transmission lines).  Pretty much any form of producing power gets someone screaming against it.

Almost like they want us to be shivering in caves.
 
By John of Argghhh! on December 9, 2011 2:58 PM
Almost like they want us to be shivering in caves.

Them first.  Lead by example.
 
By 11B40 on December 9, 2011 4:46 PM
Greetings:

Ugly ain't never good.  How people who call themselves "environmentalists" can approve of covering God's green earth with those mechanical monstrosities is beyond my limited understanding. One dive through California's Altamont Pass should cure any intelligent person from all this wind turbine nonsense. 

But then, on the other hand, if they are going to burst into flame now and then, shouldn't the enviros at least put together a drum circle or something. You know "reduce, reuse, recycle,"  etc.
 
By Quartermaster on December 9, 2011 5:36 PM
 As Joe points out, the are supposed to feather when the wind increases beyond a certain point. I'd say we have a problem of control or workmanship, with no way of being able to tell without the hardware iteslf being at hand. If they're from China, then the problem could be both.

As for teh Ecomaniacs, they are welcome to shiver in a cave if they like. I have no intention of following them. As far as I'm concerned, we should just go ahead and shut their power off for 6 months and let them see what they would have to endure without it.
 
By BillT on December 10, 2011 9:19 AM
I'm wondering why the, for want of a better term, automatic feathering in high winds, has been failing.

Because, as QM noted, Chinese workmanship and quality control fall far below Western standards.

When the Chinese hierarchy saw the West going absolutely goofy over "sustainability," it instituted a crash building program to mass produce "green" products, and began flooding the market with wind turbines. They were cheap, and they were available *now* -- Western manufacturers couldn't compete in either price or volume.

Obama's 2009 "sustainability" program created more jobs in China than in the US.

On the plus side, the toxic fumes from the burning turbines kill fewer birds than the blades of the operational ones do...
 
By Rivrdog on December 10, 2011 12:32 PM
The wind turbines have a mechanical device known as a Constant Speed Drive in them. It is similar to the system in an advanced propellor aircraft. In aircraft, they have many, many inspections to pass on a frequent basis, since they are prone to failure more so than other unitary complex systems such as engines.

Methinks that the equipment undergoes far fewer inspections in wind farms than it does on aircraft. When I was in B-52Ds, we had bleed-air driven turbines powering the aircraft's alternators through CSDs, and it was the increasing failures of those CSDs, plus the fact that the re-supply pipelines had all closed, that led to the mothballing of that entire fleet in the early 80's.

Anything complex will fail if not maintained as per it's design.

End of story.
 
By BillT on December 11, 2011 12:45 AM
Methinks that the equipment undergoes far fewer inspections in wind farms than it does on aircraft.

Especially since the beast has to be taken off line and shut down for inspection. Betcha nobody other than the manufacturer thought of that...