Remember all those stories of the ‘useless’ wind turbines. Operating at less than 25% capacity. £283,000 a year subsidies for managing to operate at 30%?
Last night the near stationary fans in Scotland finally got enough wind.
And whoops…
Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland
And double whoops…
Coldingham in Lothian and Borders
Oh dear…
SBML is the landlord of the Raccoon Arms. He lives North of Watford and has an eclictic range of interests from Science and Technology to Politics including Woodwork and Genealogy. His political viewpoint has evolved from being a student demonstrator to more liberal views and has now seen the light in Libertarianism.
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And they didn’t generate any electricity because there was too much wind!
The Daily Telegraph said with regard to the turbine fire:
A £2 million, 100 metre tall wind turbine catches fire in hurricane-force winds at Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The wind turbine was spinning so fast it caught fire. The engine of the giant turbine went up in flames and its blades were blackened by smoke. The turbine was one of 15 set up on hills overlooking the Scottish coast, built to supply green electricity to 20,000 homes.
Presumably “the engine” is used to drive the fan when the wind isn’t blowing to maintain the PR “spin” (sorry!).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/8943507/Parts-of-Britain-are-battered-by-gale-force-winds-and-storms.html
What a big surprise.
Possibly, in the scramble for subsidies the contractor, beady-eyed at the prospect of valuta, neglected to install any bearings in the wretched thing.
But – hey-ho! A few birds saved…
As I understand it – the primary purpose of such ‘wind farms’ is to generate subsidies – not electricity?
From the landowner’s point of view, that is (regrettably for the rest of us) quite correct.
In a nutshell, yes.
For when the wind falls and a thousand windmills cease to turn, a hundred CCGTs have already been burning fossil fuel in spinning standby mode, ready to take over the load.
Police are currently seeking a cantankerous nonagenarian with a stangulated accent seen in the area with a shotgun.
Maybe there’s a way to increase the efficiency of these things? Put some high-pressure water pipes and a small boiler on the turbine, so that when it catches fire, the steam generated in the pipes and boiler can drive a small turbine-generator set and make good the electricity lost because there’s too much wind.
The blades were going faster than Huhne.
The well-known saying from ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’ springs to mind:-
“Oh dear; how sad; never mind”
I am no tree hugger but harnessing the power of nature can and will be of future benefit to us.
I am positive many a combustion engines exploded in the early years and the horse breeders would have pointed to the inefficiency of such a form of transport.
All new endeavours will result in mistakes and adjustments.
Progress shall be made.
Which generation of Turbine was it that came down?
But every man, woman & child in the country didn’t subsidise the early motor car.
No-one escapes subsidising bird shredders.
You can improve the stength of the bird choppers by refining the construction materials but you’ll never improve the efficiency of energy capture except by the most marginal of increments. The wind (lack or excess of it) is forever the limiting factor. The pig’s ear will never become a silk purse.