UNLIMITED POWER!!!

We should shut all of them down, until we can prove they are safe.

/I hear wind power blew over trees in Southern California last week.

Picture 3: there are palm trees in Scotland.

And, idle thought: it would be amusing to see how much wind a wind farm could generate on a calm day by running the generators backwards, as motors. I mean, it would take a lot of power, but it would be interesting.

Imagine if that happened in a field of wheat!

Um, don't they have automatic systems that feather the props and disengage the gears in dangerously high winds? It's just a simple servo actuated clutch and an anemometer for goodness sake.

you should be able to feather those farking things to the point you could make it go backwards. What farked up?

Phil Moskowitz: you should be able to feather those farking things to the point you could make it go backwards. What farked up?

It's an interesting photo. That turbine is facing opposite the rest of them. It appears the prop did feather into a 'parked' angle, but the wind was forceful enough to rotate the entire generator housing 180 degrees. At that angle, the turbine blades would likely start spinning again, even though they were still in their 'inoperable' position.

Phil Moskowitz: you should be able to feather those farking things to the point you could make it go backwards. What farked up?

The engineering design. I think many of the turbines have brakes that should stop the thing in high winds, and when the brakes fail...

Here's a story from 2009 of a school in England that paid £53,000 to put up a wind turbine so the school could look like it was helping save the planet. Brakes failed on this, too.
http://www.newquayvoice.co.uk/news/0/article/2859/

"... then sank into the swamp..."

MrSteve007: That turbine is facing opposite the rest of them.

Imagine the vectors on the bearings from the rotational moment of a forced rotation like that. Not cool.

Phil Moskowitz: MrSteve007: That turbine is facing opposite the rest of them.

Imagine the vectors on the bearings from the rotational moment of a forced rotation like that. Not cool.

I know what all of those words mean individually, but when you put them together like that it makes my nose bleed.

Same windstorm that hit L.A. a few days ago???

I wonder where it started, 'cause I don't remember hearing anything about the Pacific or Asia having ugly winds like this.

Memoryalpha: Um, don't they have automatic systems that feather the props and disengage the gears in dangerously high winds? It's just a simple servo actuated clutch and an anemometer for goodness sake.

Yes they do, hence why the other Wind Turbines in the picture aren't also on fire. The blades are designed to pitch in situations like this as to not allow the wind to spin the turbine itself, while there is a braking system in place to help prevent the rotor from moving. Generally when these things fail like this, it's a combination of multiple things happening all at once, namely poor maintenance combined with obscene wind speeds.

Basically the last guy to do maintenance on either braking system or the blade pitch system is farked.

/wind turbine tech

Won't that be ironic when we finally switch over to clean energy sources like wind power, and then global warming makes the turbines unusable, because of the increasing frequency of gale-force winds?

I really mean it this time--that would be ironic

Peki: Same windstorm that hit L.A. a few days ago???

I wonder where it started, 'cause I don't remember hearing anything about the Pacific or Asia having ugly winds like this.

The Pacific NW is currently stuck under a major high pressure system (the one that helped cause LA's super winds). We recently shattered our *all-time* high pressure measurement for the area. Amazingly, the system's pressure is resposible for our region's tide prediction charts being off by 2 feet right now (new window).

I don't care who you are, there's some freaky weather going on at the moment.

Britain is not Scotland

Caesar's Ghost: Britain is not Scotland

Scotland isn't in Great Britain anymore? When did they move it?

Hand Banana: Caesar's Ghost: Britain is not Scotland

Scotland isn't in Great Britain anymore? When did they move it?

No, they go everywhere together. (new window)

"Look out, Prince Charles! I sense wharrgarbl approaching!"

Hand Banana: Caesar's Ghost: Britain is not Scotland

Scotland isn't in Great Britain anymore? When did they move it?

It is part of the United Kingdom but not Britain. Scotland has its own Parliament.

Superluminal Perineum: "... then sank into the swamp..."

What, the curtains?

Yeah, that should do the trick.

lousyskater: Memoryalpha: Um, don't they have automatic systems that feather the props and disengage the gears in dangerously high winds? It's just a simple servo actuated clutch and an anemometer for goodness sake.

Yes they do, hence why the other Wind Turbines in the picture aren't also on fire. The blades are designed to pitch in situations like this as to not allow the wind to spin the turbine itself, while there is a braking system in place to help prevent the rotor from moving. Generally when these things fail like this, it's a combination of multiple things happening all at once, namely poor maintenance combined with obscene wind speeds.

Basically the last guy to do maintenance on either braking system or the blade pitch system is farked.

/wind turbine tech

So you're saying it probably isn't covered under the warranty?

Caesar's Ghost: Hand Banana: Caesar's Ghost: Britain is not Scotland

Scotland isn't in Great Britain anymore? When did they move it?

It is part of the United Kingdom but not Britain. Scotland has its own Parliament.

Great Britain is the island itself, so Scotland is still definitely part of it.

Caesar's Ghost: Hand Banana: Caesar's Ghost: Britain is not Scotland

Scotland isn't in Great Britain anymore? When did they move it?

It is part of the United Kingdom but not Britain. Scotland has its own Parliament.

Britain is the name of the island itself. It consists of the countries England, Scotland and Wales. These together with Northern Ireland make up the United Kingdom. Though it's common to refer to the English as being British, and from what I've been told a Scottish person will smack you upside the head for calling them British.

No different from any other windmill. They will catch fire if they are not shut down in winds over a certain speed. Although this is a spectacular shot.

Caesar's Ghost: Britain is not Scotland

Um, you seem to have the words Britain and England confused. Scotland is indeed located on the island of Great Britain, which is one of the British Isles (which includes the islands Great Britain, Ireland, and a few thousand other small islands). The county of Scotland is separate from the county of England, which are both located on the Island of Great Britain and both part of the larger political unit known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Don't those things have emissions standards?!?

FUS RO DAH

MrSteve007: Peki: Same windstorm that hit L.A. a few days ago???

I wonder where it started, 'cause I don't remember hearing anything about the Pacific or Asia having ugly winds like this.

The Pacific NW is currently stuck under a major high pressure system (the one that helped cause LA's super winds). We recently shattered our *all-time* high pressure measurement for the area. Amazingly, the system's pressure is resposible for our region's tide prediction charts being off by 2 feet right now (new window).

I don't care who you are, there's some freaky weather going on at the moment.

A couple of nights ago, it was freakishly calm (pretty cold too). I was riding my bike home from work and came across a house with a fire going. The smoke was just sitting there in a layer right above the chimney, not moving AT ALL. I've never seen anything like that before.

Memoryalpha: Um, don't they have automatic systems that feather the props and disengage the gears in dangerously high winds? It's just a simple servo actuated clutch and an anemometer for goodness sake.

Give them time. According to the caption, they're still putting 'engines' on the generators.

greglock: Imagine if that happened in a field of wheat!

The wheat would be waving at hyper-patriotic levels, akin to a Ben Franklin Megazord shooting down ICBMs with eye-lasers?

Oh, this is Europe, nevermind, the French would surrender.

CyberDave: This should make it as clear as mud:

[i301.photobucket.com image 300x280]

/even more details (new window), I think

Same guy's video on it. (new window) And yes, he's the same guy that had videos explaining the voting stuff going in the UK a while back.