Windmill Flameout

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/12/windmill-flameout

The Daily Mail has some amazing photographs of wind turbines catching fire under high wind in Great Britain:

In one spectacular incident yesterday a 300ft wind turbine exploded in flames as it was buffeted by the high winds.

Another wind turbine was completely blown down on Wednesday, raising questions about the ability of wind farms to cope with the weather.

The flaming £2million wind turbine was in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland. Witnesses said its blades were locked at the time, because the National Grid would be unable to cope with a sudden power surge....

Although ScottishPower has not blamed the weather for its collapse, Lothian and Borders Police said the turbine 'suffered brake system failure and had been freewheeling' in 50mph winds.

Charles Anglin, of RenewableUK, the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries, stressed that wind turbines were regularly subjected to 'some pretty tough conditions' without problem.

He said: 'There's some pretty freak weather going on ...In stressful situations any power equipment may develop faults, and that's true of gas, nuclear, oil, and is also true of wind.'

The article doesn't say what company made the windmills.

Thanks to reader-participant-community member-watchdog-content co-creator F. for sending the tip.

by Editor  |  Dec 10, 2011 at 7:22 am Related Topics:  Energy receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list