June 21, 2010: Flaming Fans

xoxoxoBruce · 06-20-2010, 11:04 PM

Someone emailed me a whole bunch of pictures of burning wind turbines.
At first thought was lightning strikes, but the more I thought about it, I would think they would be built to handle that. After all, they stick way up in the air, out in the open. But snooping around the web, it seems to be the gear box oil, from malfunctioning drivetrains, catching fire.

I didn't find any frequency of failure statistics, but seeing what can happen when they do fail makes me wonder. Is it safe to be plonking these things down in flammable forests and grasslands, out in the middle of nowhere?

06-20-2010, 11:04 PM	#1
xoxoxoBruce The future is unwritten Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 71,105	June 21, 2010: Flaming Fans Someone emailed me a whole bunch of pictures of burning wind turbines. At first thought was lightning strikes, but the more I thought about it, I would think they would be built to handle that. After all, they stick way up in the air, out in the open. But snooping around the web, it seems to be the gear box oil, from malfunctioning drivetrains, catching fire. I didn't find any frequency of failure statistics, but seeing what can happen when they do fail makes me wonder. Is it safe to be plonking these things down in flammable forests and grasslands, out in the middle of nowhere? __________________ The descent of man ~ Nixon, Friedman, Reagan, Trump.

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