35 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans”

  4. “…it appears an “extreme load of some kind” may have caused this damage.”
    Bullshit? They come with extreme loads of that, probably too much to hold up forever.

  6. I am quite familiar with this issue. There was no readily verifiable cause due to weather to this. The weather in the so called ‘Banana Belt’ of Canada was not that extreme at the time of collapse or beforehand. Which is a greater cause of concern. Rural residents of Chatham Kent have been vocally against this nonsense but to no avail. No comments have been forthcoming from the champions of so called green energy

  7. If the weather was not truly extreme, then it might suggest failure due to mechanical resonance. From Wikipedia:
    Mechanical resonance is the tendency of a mechanical system to respond at greater amplitude when the frequency of its oscillations matches the system’s natural frequency of vibration (its resonance frequency or resonant frequency) than it does at other frequencies. It may cause violent swaying motions and even catastrophic failure in improperly constructed structures including bridges, buildings and airplanes. This is a phenomenon known as resonance disaster.
    You could have had a resonant frequency (which could sound like a low vibration hum depending on its frequency) moving the tower very slightly and over time, that would lead to a structural failure. As a simplification, think of bending a metal straw back and forth repeatedly. From the picture, it looks like the tower structure is hollow (no internal webbing). No, mechanical engineering is not my forte (I am an electrical, not mechanical graduate, but we had to take classes in materials, statics and dynamics), but barring catastrophic circumstances, and the presence of very large rotational load at the top of the tower, it is a possibility.
    The government won’t willingly share the results from the named company, but it should. You will probably see more of this in the future.

  9. Why is there a power line running right between the two turbines? That seems rather stupid as it looks like the failed turbine came very close to taking it out.

  10. Do those contraptions come with some sort of a WARRANTY ? Let me know when the Builder begins rebuilding this disaster for FREE. What’s that you say? The taxpayer has deep deep deep … vastly deep … pockets that will pay TWICE for ONE wind contraption ?
    Why ?
    Because … itsssssss greeeeeeeeeeennnnnnn

  13. “leaving the motor and blades lying mangled on the ground.”
    Does this come under the heading “Our moral and intellectual superiors”?

  14. Every time wind speeds exceed capacity there is a delay in the feathering-off of the blades which otherwise would self destruct. I’m guessing the resulting cumulative fatigue at the half way height eventually caused tower failure. One can chase the weakest link forever in corrective design but because these things must be free standing to allow multi-directional function, your choice is to chase the weakness to the top where all the moving parts are or accept catastrophic failure. My solution is to end the subsidies and make the proponents bid on the basis of end-use rates thereby absorbing the cost to the grid. IOW they won’t be able to compete.

  15. They laughingly call wind “renewable energy,” as though it lasts forever.
    The typical windmill has a lifespan near 20 years, I believe. There are catastrophic failures like shown here, or worse, when the gear box sticks and the whole contraption catches fire, and releases tons of “carbon” into the atmosphere. There are cases where the gear box just wears out (it is a mechanical device, not renewable) and the windmill is already obsolete as there are no new gear boxes that can replace it. There is nothing to do but “decommission” it. So the lifespan depends on the lifespan of the gear boxes and other mechanical devices.
    An oil well that remains productive for twenty years is as “renewable” as your typical windmill. You cannot amortize the production cost of a windmill forever, but only for its expected lifespan. And by production cost I don’t just mean construction cost, but the cost in “carbon” to produce all the parts of the windmill.

  16. “Ministry staff are not aware of any similar incidents in the past in this area”.
    A bit of an exaggeration that they might want to check with Wind Concerns Ont. Off hand and without looking, there were 7 towers built near Strathroy which leaned about 7 degrees next spring, there was one in Grey Co on a cant which the contractors stabilized by securing to a Cat. one in Goderich burned out completely and the same Chatham-Kent area had towers built on the local airport approach. There are others and the point to remember is that these contraptions are all brand new, relatively speaking. What will they be like with a few decades wear and tear? The Ont ministries overseeing the construction are obsessed with one thing. Get them up and spinning so the wind Outfits can collect as much subsidy as possible, and Wynne can crow about how much “renewable” power is being generated. Not much from this site as all 50 have been shut down. All turbines in the province could be shut down tomorrow with no noticeable difference, except Ont would save some money.

  18. I drove past the wind farm at Trochu Alberta shortly after an early season blizzard. They were all standing, but a majority had damage – one, two or three blades ripped off. When they calculate the cost wind power, to they include the cost of rebuilding them after every major storm?
    Oh silly me! Of course not.

  19. And … if it cannot accurately be determined WHY one tower toppled, while its next door neighbor didn’t … then the entire program should be shut down.

  20. Regarding the electrical lines there is a below ground feed to the roadside where the electricity is carried along brand new poles (seems to me a lot of trees died in this ‘green energy’ project. Each turbine in this area sits on a below ground platform of hundreds of tons of cement.

  21. It’s an extension cord. Power comes from a solar panel and the turbine blows the clouds aside so the solar panel ….

  29. Why are there power lines nearby?
    How do you think they power those things to make the blades turn when it isn’t windy?
    Sheesh, what a silly question!
    ;-b

  30. Well I have often said that if we are really worried about global warming we would run power to the wind turbines and use them to blow cooling air across the land.

  31. Shall we talk about the energy required to fabricate the cheap Chinese steel consumed by one of these CONtraptions ? Shall we include THAT in the equation of “renewable” (read; FREE!!!! yeayyy energy)?

  32. Well…having worked for a Supplier that provided the majority of the Automated Sub-Arc welding systems including the (WPS), procedures use, along with all the rolls, and other equipment & trained the builders work force in their use, I have a bit of knowledge on how these are built.
    The base wall “T” was usually in the 2.375″ thick….as the tower is built each section becomes thinner such that typically the Top section is only .375″ T. Each section is chamfered in 4:1 such that the Weld joints themselves are of identical wall thickness. Overall I have no issues with the welding, the consumables used nor the process…
    At the time, when things were hot and heavy in this sector, competition was extremely tight and any method of reducing said overall per/turbine tower cost was looked at and implemented if deemed effective.
    Given the cost of steel plate was nominally @ ~35-40% of overall cost…I would be looking at where the steel came from….CHINA.??
    And one should note that the majority of Oil Sands producers have very very strict criteria as to where their piping and structural materials come from….not so much in the subsidized wind Industry. I suspect potential lamellar tearing due to laminations of the rolled steel, or some other manufacturers defect was the underlying base reason for catastrophic failure. IMO..

  34. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/turbines-shut-down-chatham-1.4499041
    Glance at this story to get an inkling of ownership/responsibility for Ont fleet of wind turbines.
    Is it Rawleigh Power, TerraForm Power or CS Wind who operated this Industrial plant?
    Good question as a poster on Wind Concerns Ont said, These Wind companies change ownership so often no one can keep track. Not even CBC it seems.
    Just look down the road a few years when these towers really cause problems, or the life span is reached and they have to be dismantled. Who do you suppose will pay?
    I suggest Ont taxpayers will and the cost will greatly exceed the erection costs. The bill should be sent to Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal party.

  35. In structural engineering resonance is a critical design factor for earthquake or wind loads. Just look up the Tacoma Narrows bridge failure for the definitive example of this phenomena. It is a bit like driving your car or truck on a washboard road. If you drive slow enough or fast enough, it is not too bad. If you drive the wrong speed, it feels like your vehicle is going to explode!
    Unfortunately, wind loading is chaotic. We can design for average wind speed and pressures, and modify these to give us a design wind pressure based on a one in 50 year 3 second gust. But in real life, wind gusts do not always follow the science of statistics. Just watch a small wind twister blow up the sand in the summer, or twirl the snow around on the highway in the winter. Magnify this a hundred times or so at an elevation 100 metres above the ground.
    My wife and I returned from B.C. through the CrowsNest Pass last spring, and passed by all of the wind turbines between Pincher Creek and Fort McLeod on our way. We counted the wind turbines operating, and tallied 47 turbines operating out of a total of 133 that we could see.
    I checked the internet the following day and it stated that most of these were being decommissioned because their 20 year design life was complete. 20 years? Lada’s almost lasted 20 years! I wonder if they will ever take these failed pieces of junk down? Why not wait until they collapse just like they did in the picture? What a joke! Did anyone do a cost-benefit analysis on this fiasco?
    And as Brad from Swift Current bows out, he has several hundred of these white elephants on his resume as well. I hate the alternative, but the Sask Party drinks the eco cool-aid just like all the rest on the left. Hopefully Cheveldayov will abandon this fools charade. Or he will join Scheer in knowing he will never get my vote. You waste our money at your peril.

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