We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

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

1. Blow, blow blow me down
   On the frozen ground
   Merrily, merrily, merrily merrily
   Global Warming can’t be found.

2. Fred at 8:40, you’ve earned the blog quote of the day.

3. Fred @ 8:40, that was very good. Move over Rudyard Kipling and make room for Fred.
   That was a great picture…kind of warms the heart on cold windy day like today. Yesterday was brutal, as even Dolly never left her house except for the necessities.

4. But, but, Al Gore says these storms/cold snaps are caused by you guessed it Global warming…

5. That’ll buff right out.

6. Wind often blows hard in Newfoundland on cold days. We also have really bad icing conditions with strong winds, often.
   Power pylons are constructed more strongly than those on the mainland and they still come down.
   As far as wind goes here, there does seem to be a change over the last 30 years,
   not toward warmer temperatures, but toward less wind. If that change is real it’s good (can you spell “Wreck House”?),
   except of course if one wants wind power.

7. Frequency and severity of wind turbine accidents from the comments in thread
   http://www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/page4.htm
   pieces of the blades can travel up to 2 kms.

8. I blame Don Quixote.

9. I must concur with the remarks that this was not britttle steel—it buckled and did not shatter.
   However cold air, being denser, is a much larger force for the structure to endure.
   Engineering to cope with this will inevitably increase stupid costs to toatlly insane.
   This critters already involve a footing of 1000 tons of reinforced concrete to keep them from blowing over……..count the trucks……

10. Nova Scotia Power Inc. has shut down the majority of their Nuttby Mountain IWTs due to cracks in the turbine concrete bases. Considering secrecy is the norm, we’re wondering what NSPI aren’t telling us…

11. from the comments comes this link:
    http://www.spaceandscience.net/id16.html

12. Al Gore has the answer and all this cold is caused by global warming.
    Go straight to the source
    http://blog.algore.com/2011/02/an_answer_for_bill.html

13. So, was the mast the turbine was erected on made in China?

14. This event tells us that AGW is much worse than we thought. If it wasn’t for the eevil human produced CO2 then it wouldn’t be that cold and windy. Clearly what is needed is to drastically reduce human produced CO2 output. I suggest that politicians take the lead by eliminating use of all hydrocarbon fuels for the heating of government buildings and heating them with only wind and solar power.

15. How’d you like to wake up to that lying across your spring wheat? And I wonder where the rest of the blades ended up?

16. “How’d you like to wake up to that lying across your spring wheat?”
    Well, if it were an oil spill, there’d be a landman at your door negotiating compensation. There’d be equipment scooping up the contamination. There’d be an environmental scientist assessing the impact. There’d be someone from Alberta Environment, SERM, or some other agency gathering information, and making recommendations. And you’d be drinking a coffee, deciding where to spend the extra cash.
    The wind power industry has no such system in place, so you’d be on the phone, trying to find out if they’re going to have the pieces picked up before harvest.

17. Exactly coach; the oil industry in the past did some silly things causing pollution, but like everything it is evolutionary. Their act these days is so regimented, if I kick over a bucket of oil on my land, I clean it up. If, I kick over the same bucket on an Exxon or Shell etc lease, big paper work and remediation. I am so sick of these Greenpeace WWF Sierra club Pembina Parkland institute bastards getting away with their lies, the shame is on the pathetic media losers who never question the clean wind industry, that would be belly up without govt. subsidys, and always showing the stacks of an upgrader to squall about globull warming, while enjoying all the trappings of cars plastics fuel etc while spewing their lies.

18. From some of the videos that I’ve seen, it seems that in strong winds the blades flex so much that they strike the mast. I think that is why the mast snaps off in most of those cases. I am curious if there are some improvements that could be made to correct the obvious flaw. I am not a supporter of wind energy, but my inner engineer is curious.

19. Howie; the mast should be ribbed to a degree, but at those temps and a big gust, steel breaks. Cats in the north are always snapping C frames and pins when extremely cold. Possibly Chinese steel, but I would think it had to pass stress codes for this part of the world. But Howie, always remember, engineers always make their wives get on top, because they are used to beeping up.

20. A sensible description that doesn’t pander to the AGW crowd:
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110202/ap_on_sc/us_sci_weather_why

21. Must see video from Chicago!!!

22. Bartinsky, if you look closely at many of the videos, the mast breaks at about the same point as where the blade tip would pass by. Both the blades and mast break simultaneously. It looks too perfect to be coincidental.

23. Gord Tulk, you crack me up…

24. They appear to be bowing, possibly facing Mecca?