Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Wind Turbines Gone Wild



Aarhus in Denmark, via the Telegraph blog. Apparently the brakes failed. I'd not considered it, but it's pretty obvious that something that size would break up under free rotation in a strong wind.
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well that was pretty dangerous. The spectators were lucky they were not struck by those blades, or the resulting shrapnel.
Someone needs to do a failure mode analysis.

Monty

11:40 pm
Anonymous said...

For this to happen, the blade controls have to fail (otherwise the blades would be turned to be neutral against the wind, and the brakes have to fail.)

That can happen, and will happen. But, for that to happen sensors inside the nacelle will spot it and provide adequate warning. Which is how this could be recorded by camera. Here. The brakes and the controls failed. Alarms went off, and now we have this video.

1:11 am
Anonymous said...

By the way, wind turbines require regular inspection and maintenance, by skilled employees who have to live nearby, which is very nice for rural economies.

I would expect a British conservative to consider that a plus, and to give these things more than a sneer.

1:14 am
Alfie said...

The most complete example of fatigued flange failure I have ever seen..

5:04 pm
Thud said...

British conservatives give these things more than a sneer...we do the maths...then we sneer,snort, laugh etc.

6:57 pm
Laban said...

I'm not sneering at them - I just thought it was an interesting video.

(though I don't approve of plastering the whole Isle of Lewis with them)

7:12 pm
Anonymous said...

I hope no British conservative believes in anything as daft as "job creation". Wind farms are uneconomic. If they're dangerous too, by all means have a sneer.

8:51 pm
Anonymous said...

More dangerous than leaving our energy supplies in the hands of that nice Mr Putin or the Saudis?

11:52 am
ba ba said...

I knew someone who helped build a long road to the middle of nowhere to service some of these things.

They are a silly idea. Solar panels don't require any maintenance so aren't necessarily a bad idea.

7:58 am

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