“The local municipalities don’t have either high-level rescue capabilities, as high as these turbines are, or they don’t have any fire equipment to put out a fire like this. Then you also wonder how far pieces off the turbine will travel in the wind.”
I guess wind turbine designers never heard of a neat little invention called a fuse. Or maybe they decided to save $2 on their 2 million $ turbine by omitting them. Same goes for any kind of fire suppression equipment. I’m glad these people don’t build airplanes, because they would be dropping out of the sky on a daily basis.
Well, since the enviro-nuts are calling for an end to pipeline construction after the leak in Arkansas I guess we should stop erecting wind turbines. After all, the pipeline in Arkansas lasted 40 years. This turbine only reached 7 before the lights went out.
Or the derailed train that spilled all kind of oil in Northern Ontario just this week.
And just guess who’s responsible for the cleanup. Yup, the landowner. And guess who has to insure the thing at a cost of approx. $5,000 per annum. Yup, the landowner.
These morons don’t bother to read the fine print in the contracts, they’re too greedy and naive.
Turbines also get a pass on suppression as well. I asked at a wind developer open house if that area in the nacelle is deemed a workplace, why there’s no sprinkler system. Once again, it shows that any of these “green” contraptions get a pass on just about anything that the rest of us in the real world have to adhere to.
Europe especially Germany has had many such fires…usually caused by over-speed….at times failure of the braking system.
Ice throw and structural failure has resulted in some freaky incidents….home up to about 1/4 mile distant be struck.
While nuclear power has yet to claim a casualty in North America, hundreds of deaths have resulted in construction and maintainence of these wonderous devices….
“…you also wonder how far pieces off the turbine will travel in the wind…”
A lot friggin’ farther than the turbine company says they will. Its a 150 foot long airplane wing. If you stuck a motor on it you could probably fly it across the county.
Of course the -real- danger of these f-ed up things is not that they’ll go on fire or crush somebody’s house. The incomparably larger problem is that they could easily crash the whole Eastern Seaboard power grid. That happened in 2003 because of some downed trees and a software bug, we all lost power for two days. Imagine the chaos that would be cause if some major power systems get melted because a wind farm dumps half a gigawatt of excess energy into the grid at an inopportune moment.
Anyone want to envision the result of the 2003 power outage in the -winter-? Now how about if it goes on for a week because a couple thousand transformers got burnt?
I’m much reminded of a time, when Ontario Hydro, sent an instructor to our fire department, and spent almost 4 hours explaining the ‘approved’ methods of dealing with ‘Pole Line Fires. Included, was, the water pressure, fog patterns and distance and clothing to wear.
After the training session was over, the Chief stood up and announced, if he ever caught anyone in the department fighting one of these fires, he’d first kick their arse, then dismiss them, a wooden stick wasn’t worth a hang nail on a firefighter..
Windmill fires should be dealt with, by standing back, protecting any exposures, and ensuring no one was closer than 4 times the height. Also ensure, nobody was within the plane of blade travel for about 10x height. If the beast collapsed and took out several more, such as in a windmill farm, too bad..
Nothing a bit of weiner schleider won’t cure.
Vas ist das, weiner schleider?
Das ist zee grease McGuinty used on zee Green Energy voters, jah!