“Wait, these ‘green’ wind turbines use oil???” an astonished Swedish journalist asked, reporting that a wind turbine collapsed and was leaking oil
"So much for ‘keeping it in the ground’, as climate obsessives like to intone."
Example of product type used by the wind industry. (Credit: Tallbloke's Talkshop)
❝So much for ‘keeping it in the ground’, as climate obsessives like to intone to anyone who will listen to their anti-oil rants.❞ – Tallbloke’s Talkshop
Wind Turbine Collapses: ‘Leaking Oil Everywhere!’
by Craig Bannister • CNS News • July 18, 2022
“Wait, these ‘green’ wind turbines use oil???” an astonished Swedish journalist asked, reporting that a wind turbine collapsed Saturday and people were being told to stay away - because it was leaking oil.
On Sunday, puzzled Swedish journalist and political commentator Peter Imanuelsen tweeted the news:
“A wind power turbine just collapsed in Sweden.
“People are being warned to keep their distance because...it is now leaking oil everywhere!
“Wait, these "green" wind turbines use oil???”
In Sweden, a turbine at one of Europe’s largest and newest onshore wind farms collapsed on Saturday, RECHARGE News reports:
The collapsed turbine at Nysater.Photo: With permission from Birgitta Jansson via Facebook
Turbine down | Collapse and oil spill shuts one of Europe's largest and newest wind farms
Incident closes Nordex-equipped Nysäter project in Sweden just weeks after ribbon-cutting by RWE.
18 July 2022 8:55 GMT UPDATED 18 July 2022 15:12 GMT By Andrew Lee
An investigation is underway after a turbine collapse that closed one of Europe’s largest and newest onshore wind farms just weeks after it was inaugurated.
A turbine fell at the 475MW Nysäter project in northern Sweden around midday on Saturday, said a statement on the project’s website.
No one was injured but there was a suspected oil leak from the affected turbine’s gearbox and the entire wind farm is now closed, it added, urging the public to stay away.
“A turbine fell at the 475MW Nysäter project in northern Sweden around midday on Saturday, said a statement on the project’s website.
“No one was injured but there was a suspected oil leak from the affected turbine’s gearbox and the entire wind farm is now closed, it added, urging the public to stay away.”
(Screenshot)
“Depending on its size, a wind turbine gearbox needs an oil quantity between 200 (53 gallons) and 800 L (211 gallons), according to a peer-review article published by MDPI, titled “Monitoring the Oil of Wind-Turbine Gearboxes: Main Degradation Indicators and Detection Methods.”
Patricia Pitsel, Ph.D., Principal at Pitsel & Associates Ltd. estimates that the typical wind farm requires about 12,000 gallons of oil:
“Right now the average wind farm is about 150 turbines. Each wind turbine needs 80 gallons of oil as lubricant and we're not talking about vegetable oil, this is a PAO synthetic oil based on crude... 12,000 gallons of it. That oil needs to be replaced once a year.
“It is estimated that a little over 3,800 turbines would be needed to power a city the size of New York... That's 304,000 gallons of refined oil for just one city.”
Wind turbine accidents, like the one in Sweden on Saturday, are not uncommon, windAction reports:
“The Swedish incident comes after the collapse of a Nordex N149 in Germany in October 2021.
“Sweden is the home of some of the largest wind projects in Europe, many of them using the most powerful new turbines on the market.
“The country has seen several accidents at new projects, including the collapse of a Vestas V150 and a blade failure on a 5.3MW-158 GE Cypress.”
I have been looking into the oil lubricants required for industrial wind turbines again. Not surprisingly, all of the big oil companies Shell, BP, ExxonMobil etcetera are the suppliers. Do the greenwashed ones know this? When you mention it they become hyperbolic and angrily resort to reciting a litany of green myths whilst calling one a ‘climate denier’ or other.
Here is one post by [Royal Dutch] Shell from four years ago.
KEEPING CHINA’S WIND TURBINES TURNING
China has more wind turbines than any other country. Many of them are built at high altitude in humid conditions, where it is difficult to avoid corrosion. Watch this Inside Energy film to see how scientists at Shell produced a new formula of lubricant to meet that challenge.
Watch: The mountainous wind turbines of China, and how Shell helps to keep them turning.
This past Saturday a spectacular wind turbine fire garnered a lot of attention and press after it was hit by lightening near Crowell, Texas.
As Milena Amit commented on Twitter, “If this is not the perfect visual for Biden's green energy policy, I don't know what is..."
All that spiralling black toxic smoke is from the burning gearbox oil and lubricants required to operate industrial wind turbines, along with other flammable materials such as plastics, resins and fibreglass which is used to manufacture the huge blades.
Here is another video of the same turbine. From the description:
“Lightning struck the tip of a wind turbine blade while I was plowing a few fields away, and about 5 minutes later it caught on fire, then completely fell apart." – June 22, 2022
Wind turbine disintegrates in Texas after a lightning strike
By Andrew Wulfeck, FOX Weather
July 23, 2022 • New York Post
CROWELL, Texas – A North Texas wind farm is one turbine down thanks to what officials believe was a devastating lightning strike to one of the massive structures on Friday afternoon.
Videos from witnesses and firefighters showed the wind turbine generator ablaze and disintegrate in the sky over Crowell, Texas.
Doppler radar indicated there were plenty of lightning strikes around the Foard City wind facility before firefighters received the call about the high-altitude fire.
Crews with the Crowell Volunteer Fire Department responded, but Fire Chief Perry Shaw said there was little his firefighters could do to put the fire out.
“We’re not equipped to handle that kind of fire. Nobody in the area really is to speak of,” Shaw said.
The fire chief estimated there were 800 gallons of oil in the gearbox and around 1,300 gallons of mineral oil in the ground-level transformer, which caused the smoke to appear dark black in the sky.
Image: Brent Havins via Storyful
The facility’s operator, Innergex Renewable Energy, said all personnel at the more than 31,000-acre complex are safe, and the fire only impacted one of its energy turbines.
The Foard City wind farm has around 139 GE turbines and was commissioned in September 2019.
Shaw said he has seen plenty of videos of turbine fires, but this is the first time he recalled an incident involving one in Crowell.
On July 22, 2022 a huge wind turbine in Scotland caught fire.
Black cloud fills Ayrshire sky amid wind turbine fire near West Kilbride
by Callum Corral • Lags and Millport News • July 22, 2022
[See video at source.]
A wind turbine has gone on fire on the back hills between West Kilbride and Dalry.
Pictures and videos of thick black smoke and flames emerging from one of the blades were taken at around 5.30pm.
Local fire brigades are attending the scene.
North Coast Councillor Todd Ferguson said: "It is not a good thing to see - although wind turbines are a form of green energy they still have engines and mechanical parts - and a lot of these turbines do no have fire mitigation measures so this turbine is not likely to be recoverable.
"I believe the issue is becoming a bigger problem in the industry and it is one of the problems of moving forward with new technology.
"I wonder with the hot weather over recent days whether that has had any effect.
It is still a relatively rare thing to happen but fire issues such as this are going to have to be looked into closer."
A turbine last went on fire in the local area near Ardrossan during a storm in December 2011.
This December 8, 2011 tweet shows the turbine on fire near Ardrossan, West Kilbride.
This is another recent turbine fire in the UK.
Fire destroys wind turbine in Thorney, near Peterborough
Credit: A fire destroyed a wind turbine in Thorney yesterday evening (April 24). | By Ben Jones | Peterborough Telegraph | Monday, 25th April 2022 | www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk ~~
The turbine on French Drove caught fire on Sunday. Photo: Cowbit Village.
A fire destroyed a wind turbine in Thorney yesterday evening (April 24).
The fire broke out at the turbine on French Drove at around 5:45pm and was attended to by both Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue services.
A crew from Crowland arrived before handing the incident over to a crew from Dogsthorpe. No firefighting action was taken.
Nearby residents were advised to keep their windows and doors closed while the blades and the motor of the turbine were still alight.
Investigation taking place into cause of large Lincolnshire wind turbine fire
Credit: By Oliver Pridmore, Trainee reporter, 25 APR 2022, lincolnshirelive.co.uk ~~
Smoke coming from the affected wind turbine. (Image: Matthew Westerman)
Investigations are underway after a wind turbine on the Lincolnshire border caught fire forcing nearby residents to close their windows. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue first shared news about the incident at around 5.45pm yesterday, April 24, saying that the blaze was taking place off French Drove in the village of Thorney near Spalding.
Crews from both the Crowland and Deeping fire stations attended the incident, before the response was handed over to the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue service. Pictures shared with Lincolnshire Live show long trails of black smoke coming from the affected turbine during the incident, with its nose having come off as a result.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue said that the cause of the fire was believed to be accidental and related to an equipment failure. The service said that the incident was handed over to a crew from Dogsthorpe fire station after Lincolnshire crews left, with the Dogsthorpe crew then leaving the scene at 10.40pm.
The fire service spokesperson added that a crew returned to reinspect the site this morning before it was handed over to the company behind French Farm Wind Farm. A spokesperson for that company said it was now investigating the cause of the fire.
They said: “On Sunday evening we received a report of a turbine fire at French Farm Wind Farm. Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue attended the wind farm and ensured the site was safe.
“The power to and from the turbines was switched off and a precautionary exclusion zone has been set up. There are no injuries and we would like to thank the fire service for their assistance. An investigation is now underway and the affected turbine will be analysed by the manufacturer’s experts to determine the cause of the fire.”
This is a small sample of reports of turbine fires.
The worst fatal fire that I am aware of from the last decade is this one in the Netherlands. I recall feeling sick and horrified watching the video footage of the tragedy a few years ago, but cannot find it now on YouTube.
Dual deaths in wind turbine fire highlight hazards
Credit: By Miriam Raftery | East County Magazine | October 31, 2013 | eastcountymagazine.org ~~
Two young mechanics, ages 19 and 21, died when a fire broke out in a wind turbine where they were performing routine maintenance. The tragedy occurred at Deltawind’s Piet de Wit wind farm in the Netherlands, but highlights the hazards associated with fires caused by wind turbines.
According to the Netherlands Times, “because of the height, the fire department initially had trouble extinguishing the fire in the engine room.” The fire started in the afternoon, but it took until evening for a special team of firefighters to arrive and ascend with a large crane.
One victim was found on the ground beside the wind turbine; the other body was recovered by the specialized team. Two other mechanics escaped safely. A witness reported seeing two men jump through flames into a staircase.
Cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but Deltawind has suggested a short circuit could be the cause. The turbine was a 1.75 megawatt Vestas V-66. Troublingly, these turbines are being sold by secondhand dealers online to buyers who may have no knowledge about the potential fire hazard.
The wind industry has long claimed that wind turbine fires are rare. But after creating a Google alert for the term “wind turbine fire,” ECM has received clips from media outlets around the world documenting that in fact, wind turbine fires are far more common than the industry would have prospective buyers believe.
Vestas has been plagued by wind turbine fires in the past. The company blamed a 2011 wind turbine fire on a brake problem. In 2012, a Vestas V-112 wind turbine in Germany caught fire; Vestas blamed the blaze on a loose connection that caused an arc flash. Also in 2012; a similar arc fire occurred in a Vestas V-90 turbine in Spain during maintenance; in addition a Vestas turbine collapsed in Ireland. Then in April 2013, a Vestas V-80 wind turbine in Ontario, Canada, burst into flames. [Bold mine]
Tule Wind, an Iberdrola project has been approved by Supervisors and the federal government for construction in McCain Valley near Boulevard in East County. That’s a cause for concern among firefighting experts, since aerial drops by firefighting planes can’t be done above 500-foot-tall turbines (fire drops work best at 100 to 350 feet), nor can firefighters be put at risk to battle blazes beneath whirling blades hurling off burning debris. Moreover, Boulevard’s fire station has been closed most days over the past three months.
Mark Ostrander, a retired Cal Fire battalion chief, testified to San Diego’s Planning Commission that wind turbines in McCain Valley, along with Sunrise Powerlink, “will hamper aerial firefighting.” He warned, “If we have a fire start in a wind area, we’re going to have to wait until it comes out, for the safety of the firefighters.”
But who is going to protect the safety of campers, hikers, or residents near the recreational area if a wildfire starts at Tule Wind? (Even in a best case scenario with turbines that function properly, there is still increased risk of fire due to towering turbines attracting lightning strikes, as has also happened at wind facilities around the world. View a photo, posted on the Weather Channel.) Is putting hundreds of lightning rods up across fire-prone East County, where some storms have caused over a thousand lightning strikes in a single weekend, really a good idea?
Iberdrola has purchased Vestas turbines at some of its other projects.
Iberdrola also has an agreement to purchase at least half of its turbines through 2022 from Gamesa, another company with a track record of turbine fires, as ECM previously reported. http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/10644
On May 22, 2012, a Gamesa turbine caught fire at Iberdrola’s Barton 2 Wind Power Project in Iowa, North American Windpower reported. A Gamesa spokesman claimed the company’s maintenance contract had expired.
Gamesa turbines have also been linked to two turbine fires in Pennsylvania, including Iberdrola’s Locust Ridge project in 2009 and another fire at North Allegheny Ridge (not owned by Iberdrola) in 2012. Iberdrola previously had issues with Gamesa turbine blades whirling off chunks of turbine debris at the same facility. ECM has previously reported on these issues and other turbine safety concerns in an April 4, 2012 report, “The Dark Side of Green.”
Both Gamesa and Vestas have warned of problems in older models installed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However fires at plants with more recent installations make clear that fire and safety issues have still not been adequately addressed.
Gamesa has had at least five legal actions filed against it involving U.S. wind projects over warranty disputes for hefty repairs and lost production. That includes $34.5 million in turbine repairs at the Kumeyaay Wind Farm in on the Campo Indian reservation locally. A witness told ECM that he saw a blue flash that radiated out through the wind farm during a storm in December 2009 before the project went dark. All 75 blades on all 25 turbines were replaced and the facility was offline for three months. (View court documents). Gamesa blades suffered from “design and manufacturing defects,” the suits allege, Recharge News has reported.
San Diego Supervisor Dianne Jacob has voiced grave concerns over fire dangers posed by wind turbines in our backcountry, but other Supervisors ignored the fire risks, pushing through approve of the Tule Wind project as well as a County wind ordinance that opens up more rural areas for wind energy development. Yet these remote communites lack specialized firefighting forces such as the team used to ultimately quell the Netherlands wind turbine fire – and in on many days lately, have no fire station open at all, fueling growing safety concerns among residents.
These two tweets are about the tragic 2013 wind turbine fire at Deltawind’s Piet de Wit wind farm in the Netherlands.
“The last hug of two Engineers trapped in a Wind Turbine” at Deltawind’s Piet de Wit wind farm.
Translation: “The last hug of two Engineers trapped in a Wind Turbine at #Holanda”
The article linked in the one above was published in 2012 but is well worth replicating here, for posterity.
The Dark Side of “Green”
WIND TURBINE ACCIDENTS, INJURIES AND FATALITIES RAISE SERIOUS SAFETY CONCERNS
By Miriam Raftery
April 4, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) – Today marks the “International Protest Day Against Wind Power” with 765 websites participating.
A dark side of the wind industry that many media outlets have failed to report on is the thousands of documented cases of serious accidents. These include numerous documented cases of turbines falling over, blades flying off, injuries to workers and the public, and at least 99 reported fatality accidents.
Of the deaths, 67 were wind industry and direct supporters workers or small turbine operators and 32 were public fatalities.
How many tragedies have occurred worldwide is a well-kept secret within the wind industry. In the United Kingdom alone, however, Renewables UK, an industry trade association, has admitted to 1,500 wind turbine accidents/incidents in the UK alone during the past five years, the London Telegraph reported . Those included 300 injuries and four deaths—in just one small part of the world.
A partial database of accidents , injuries and deaths through December 2011 has been compiled at the Caithness Wind Farm Information Forum:According to the Caithness database, which estimates it represents only 9% of actual accidents (based on the RenewablesUK figures), an average of 128 accidents per year have occurred from 2007-2011, up from just 6 a year back in 1992-1996 due to the growing number of wind turbine installations.
Among the most grisly tragedies was that of John Donnelly, a worker killed in Oregon in 1989 when a lanyard that was supposed to prevent falls for turbine workers became entangled, dragging him into the spinning machinery. According to Paul Gipe, an advocate of wind power who authored an article on fatalities, the medical examiner described Donnelly’s demise as death by “multiple amputations”, witnessed by a horrified coworker.
Another Oregon worker, Chadd Mitchell, young father of two, was killed when a wind turbine tower he was in collapsed to the ground in Sherman County after the turbine’s rotor went into “overspeed,” the Oregonian reported on February 6, 2010. Siemens Power was fined for safety violations, and the family filed a lawsuit.
Other deaths have included electrocutions, falls, crush injuries, construction accidents, and a Minnesota man who was nearly cut in half by a chunk of ice knocked off a turbine tower in 1994. Three suicides have also been linked to turbines, including a worker who hanged himself, a parachutist, and a farmer who killed himself after neighbors protested a turbine he put on his property.
Caithness also has documented 221 separate incidences of blade failure, with pieces of blades documented to have flown over 1,300 meters—or 4,266 feet (4/5 of a mile). Blade pieces have gone through roofs and walls of nearby buildings. At least 121 structural failures have been recorded too, including entire wind turbines that have crashed to the ground. The website www.windaction.org documents many of these.
Turbines have crashed to the ground in school yards, near homes, roads and walking paths where only by sheer luck was no one underneath when the multi-ton structures collapsed. In the Palm Springs area, a turbine spinning out of control forced closure of a major highway. There are also concerns about many turbines still standing –where failures such as cracked foundations and sinkage have been observed.
Around 168 wind turbine fires have been documented. Some sparked brush fires and left some fire departments helpless to watch as oil in turbine components burned hundreds of feet in the air—out of reach of hoses—whirling burning debris across the landscape.
There are also many instances of ice throws hurling chunks of ice off blades—94 times in 2005 alone. Another 93 transport accidents involving turbines have been reported, including one turbine section that rammed through a house and another that knocked a utility pole through a restaurant.
Disturbingly, EnergyBiz Magazine reported in its March/April 2011 edition that “More troubling for wind fleet owners and operators is that many turbines are coming off warranty. The end of last year marked the first time in U.S. history that more wind turbines were operating out of warranty than were covered, according to Wind Systems magazine, while many more are approaching the end of their warranties. Hidden costs of maintenance have climbed sharply, though some promising technologies may help reduce those costs, Energy Biz noted.
Still the issues raise troubling questions: who will be responsible for catastrophic failures when warranties have run out? Are local boards making decisions regarding turbine placement sufficiently educated on the risks?
How far away from a wind turbine is a safe setback distance? Locally, some proposed industrial wind projects would place turbines within a half mile of homes, on up to three sides of the dwellings, in Ocotillo. In McCain Valley, Iberdrola's Tule Wind proposes setbacks from roads of only 1.1 times the height of the turbine - or around 455 feet maximum.
In Kansas, Rose Bacon, a member of the Governor’s Energy Task Force, became so concerned about lack of teeth in regulations and vulnerability of inexperienced local officials in small towns facing proposals from international wind companies that she likened the scenario to the “wildcatter days in the oil business,” the McPherson Sentinel reported in 2005.
Below are some specific examples of serious incidents documented through the above websites, where many more incidents can also be found.
A wind turbine crashed to the ground at a wind farm near The Dalles, Oregon in August 2007, killing one worker and injuring another, Associated Press reported.
A blade from a wind turbine at Lister Hospital in the United Kingdom flew off and hit a car just one month after becoming fully operational in September 2011, the Comet reported.
California Highway Patrol shut down Highway 58 for several hours to protect motorists from a runaway wind turbine in the Tehachapi area. “The runaway wind turbine, when it deteriorates or explodes, can send scrap metal and steel up to a mile away,” CHP Officer Ed Smith said, the Tehachapi News reported.
A wind turbine plunged nearly 200 feet to the ground near I-10 in North Palm Springs after going into “overspeed”, KPSP news reported on May 1, 2009.
An Iberdrola wind turbine caught fire on May 14, 2009 at Locust Ridge wind farm in Pennsylvania; the fire was blamed on a gear box problem.
A 187-ton wind turbine crashed to the ground at the Fenner wind farm in New York after breaking off at its base. Enel shut down the entire 20-turbine wind farm in Madison, County New York in June 2010 for at least six months, the Oneida Daily Dispatch and other newspapers reported.
Large chunks of seven turbine blades broke off at the Allegheny Ridge Wind Farm in Pennsylvania, with pieces flying over 500 feet, the Patriot News reported in May 2007. Spanish wind-energy company Gamesa blamed insufficient glue for the failures.
In Dolfor, United Kingdom, a turbine exploded and fell to the ground near walking tracks, leading the Shropshire Star to conclude In January 2012, “Turbines should be nowhere near public footpaths.”
At Perkins High School in Ohio, blades on a month-old turbine broke apart while spinning, sending fiberglass pieces up to 40 yards (120 feet) away in February 2009. In December 2010 a blade again detached; fortunately school was not in session.
A wind turbine crashed down near Western Reserve High School in Berlin Center in April 2011 in Ohio, WKBN news reported.
At Fakenham High School in the United Kingdom, students witnessed a 40-foot wind turbine crash onto the school’s playing field and crush a contractor’s van in December 2009, Windaction.org reported.
Redriven Power recalled blades after turbines therw blades onto an Ohio high school and an organic fig farm in northern California, Eastern AgriNews reported in May 2009.
A General Electric turbine collapsed at an Altona, New York wind farm, the Press-Republican reported, after neighbors heard explosions and the turbine caught fire.
In Norway, a blade from a Suez Energy North American V-90 wind turbine was hurled about 1,600 feet, landing near a home’s back door, the Journal Pioneer reported in December 2008.
A turbine blade crashed through the roof of a neighbor’s home in Wallaceburg, Canada, the Chatham Daily News reported in February 2009.
In November 2009, the Press & Journal reported that a wind turbine collapsed at Rasssay Primary School, forcing children to be sent home after it landed in their playground.
A damaged transformer leaked 491 gallons of mineral oil in 2007 at the Maple Ridge Wind Farm’s substation in New York; in 2009 a transformer at the same site was destroyed by fire, the Watertown Daily News reported.
A turbine near a highway twice lost blades, the Huron Daily Tribune reported in December 2010.
Offshore wind farms in the North Sea are in danger of tumbling down, Wind Energy Update reported on March 18, 2011, noting that dissolved grout had shifted turbines within their foundations at around 600 of Europe’s 948 offshore turbines.
Renewables UK has warned that hundreds of offshore wind turbines could be suffering from a design that makes them sink into the sea, the Times Online reported on April 13, 2010.
Two men were injured while constructing a wind turbine tower in Rochester, Minnesota, the Post-Bulletin reported on January 14, 2011.
Proven Energy told owners of over 600 smaller turbines to shut them down due to fears of catstrophic mechanical failure, the Press and Journal reported in September 2011; the manufacturer suspended sales.
Five U.S. wind projects owned by Australia’s Infigen Energy have been engaged in legal actions with turbine manufacturer Gamesa over repair costs and lost production due to various warranty-related disputes, Recharge News reported in December 2011. The largest of those cases involves the Kumeyaay Wind Farm in Campo, where all 75 turbine blades had to be replaced due to storm damage at a cost of over $34.5 million. Kumeyaay has “vigorously” contested a Gemsa claim and was pursuing warranty-related claims of $10 million against Gamesa, the story added. [Note: This project is listed by Pattern Energy as a “success” story in its application to the California Public Utility Commission for the Ocotillo Wind Express project)
Texas state representative Susan King had a wind turbine on her ranch that caught fire and burned two acres. She described it “throwing fire balls on my property”; KTXS found that despite pledges by Next Era Energy t o support volunteer fire departments, no funds had been provided in the past four years.
In Hokkaido, Japan, firefighters found hoses were too short to extinguish a fire in a 66-meter-high wind turbine, which took four hours to burn itself out.
Huge blades from three turbines in Huddersfield, England “were blown across a busy road and could have hurt wildlife or caused damage to property as well as endangering life,” the London Telegraph reported in January 2012. Gale force winds were blamed.
In Western Illinois in 2008, a 6.5 ton blade sailed about 150 feet away, the Associated Press reported.
One month earlier, a 330 foot turbine “burst into flame in Ayrshire” during a 165-mph storm on the Scottish border and crashed to the ground near a road, the Telegraph reported.
A Sheffield, Vermont wind turbine spilled 55-60 gallons of gear oil, spraying it out 200 yards; each turbine generator holds about 110 gallons of hydraulic and lubricating oils, the Burlington Free Press reported.
An Abilene, Texas wind turbine erupted into flames and spread to grass around the tower, KTXS News reported on August 26, 2011. The turbine was owned by NextEra Energy.
Iberdrola, the Spanish wind energy producer, blamed falling Suzlon Energy turbine blades on a one-tie accident, the Bloomberg News in North Dakota reported in May 18, 2011, suspending operations at its wind farm in North Rugby, North Dakota. The same model, however, suffered cracked blades starting in 2007, prompting a $100 million global retrofit.
Three blades came off a turbine at a residence and farm in Forked River, New Jersey, causing the state to shut down its entire onshore wind turbine program in March 25, 2011, the NJ Spotlight reported.
A lightning fire at a wind turbine in Peterson, Iowa in August 2010 was the “third or fourth” turbine fire that the Peterson Fire Department had put out in a dozen years, the Sioux Cit Journal reported.
In White Deer Texas, News Channel 10 reported oil seeping down the sides of multiple turbines.
In Iga Mie Prefecture, Japan, the Asahi Shimbun reported in January 2008, “malfunctions and accidents involving wind turbines have occurred repeatedly across the country, leading to suspended services and even the scrapping of one facility…Slipshod surveys of wind, flawed designs or sheer incompetence have dealt a blow to the reputation of wind turbines…”
Hundreds of motorists near Sunderland in the UK witnessed a turbine fire that caused rotor blades to break off; two more turbines by Vestas later fell over in high winds in Scotland, the JournalLive reported in 2008.
Clipper Windpower had to spend $300 million to fix faulty blades after cracks appeared at multiple facilities, Enviornmental Finance reported in May 2009.
A $6 million wind turbine caught fire at the Cathedral Rocks Wind Farm, starting blazes on the ground from falling embers the Adelaide Now newspaper covering Australia/New Zealand reported in February 2009.
In Florida, the Desert Valley Star reported in January 2009 that FPL/NER operates 60 wind turbines—and reportedly 40% were “malfunctioning, in disrepair, or need maintenance.”
Windtech International reported that a survey of 75 wind farm operators in the U.S. in 2008 found that 60% of turbines may be behind in critical maintenance due largely to a shortage of qualified turbine technicians.
While there are certainly many wind turbines that have never malfunctioned, the dangers cited above are real and have led many municipalities to adopt setback requirements from homes, roads, campgrounds, walkways, playgrounds and any inhabited buildings.
The wind industry has resisted setbacks, however. In Wind Energy Comes of Age, published in 1995, wind energy advocate Paul Gipe contends that setbacks of 500-1000 feet from residences are “more than adequate to protect public safety” and notes that in Europe, windmills have often been installed in places frequented by the public. Gipe insists that despite many accidents, the odds of being injured by a wind turbine remain less than that chance of being struck by lightning.
Setback distances vary widely. Some California communities use a multiple of size, such as three times the height of the turbine. Other areas have larger setback requirements. For instance, in Victoria Precinct, Australia, the government has adopted a 2 meter (1.24 mile) setback requirement for wind turbines to protect residents from risks of mechanical collapses.
In Brown County, Wisconsin, the Board of Health in January passed a resolution seeking emergency financial aid for residents near wind turbines who suffered serious health impacts including some families who abandoned their homes due to health concerns.
The Board called for adoption of the Wisconsin Citizens Safe Wind Siting Guidelines which would require setbacks of at least 2,640 feet from property lines, with further restrictions on shadow flicker, noise and other factors. Developers would also be required to submit a report with blade and debris throw calculations to protect public safety.
For anyone who may be interested, this is a 13 page technical report regarding fire protection for industrial wind turbines prepared by engineering and technical researchers in the UK and Sweden in 2012.
You may have noticed the mention of problems with Vestas wind turbines. The highly controversial Hendy Wind Farm constructed next to iconic Llandegley Rocks which is surrounded by four Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAMs) has 7 x 110 meter tall Vestas turbines. When the turbine parts were being delivered at the end of last summer and early Autumn 2021, several people were told by members of the crew which delivered them to the site that they were used turbine parts. I mentioned the Hendy Wind Farm debacle in my previous post, More Net Zero Insanity.
"Remember, this is where they want to take us." – Robert Peter
“Wait, these ‘green’ wind turbines use oil???” an astonished Swedish journalist asked, reporting that a wind turbine collapsed and was leaking oil
"Do the greenwashed ones know this?"
It was featured in the movie Planet of the Humans. I wouldn't call them greenwashed, they're just woke. In my personal experience they have about as much environmental focus as the worst polluters on the planet. They're more interested in what gender you identify as. There was a lot of truth in Moore & Gibson's movie although they did hint at population reduction. So maybe that's why the woke climate warriors didn't like it and more or less got it banned. As they didn't want us to figure that one out before 2020.