Hurricane Bawbag!

[Jak]

Because wind turbines have limiters to stop them rotating too quickly. If they didn't, they'd rip themselves to shreds whenever the wind was high. I imagine the friction caused by the limiter caught something flammable and the whole thing went up.

I still find it funny that a wind turbine's main function is to use wind to collect energy and that you want more wind to generate more power. But the more wind broke the actual thing. It's like the light intensity being so high that it melts the solar panel

 

[W4FC B3N]

Winds reached 165 mph in parts.. That's insane!

 

[Joel`]

This striking image of a wind turbine in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland as it exploded in high winds has made headline news. The turbine was destroyed yesterday as the region was battered by winds of up to 260km/h when a ferocious Atlantic storm powered into northern parts of the UK. But what caused the explosion?

An amateur video shows the turbine head spinning on its axis and one turbine blade apparently losing its carbon composite skin before the fire starts.

It's not yet clear what happened, but attention is likely to focus on the turbine's ability to shut itself down in high wind. A wind turbine normally shuts down when winds reach 55 mph - but something clearly went awry in Ardrossan, perhaps causing excess current in the generator windings, which may have led to the fire.

The shutdown is normally performed by 'feathering' the turbine blades so they do not turn. "In general the turbine blades will pitch out in high winds, keeping the turbines in idle mode," confirms a spokesman for the turbine's manufacturer, Vestas of Aarhus, Denmark.
Another source of the problem may be a fault in the turbine's gearbox, which ensures the rotor speed is adjusted so that the generator provides electricity that matches what is required by the grid it is feeding.

The accident is now under investigation by Vestas and the wind farm's operator, Infinis of Edinburgh, UK. Infinis says that the site has been disconnected (PDF) from the grid as a "precautionary measure" while it investigates the cause of the blaze.

That the turbine shed large pieces of flaming material will also be of some concern to people living close to such installations - and will almost certainly fuel future planning permission objections from vocal anti-wind farm groups like Country Guardian - not to mention the sheep who were grazing happily below.

One Per Cent: Why did a Scottish wind turbine explode in high winds?

 

[rfcboy]

I live literally 10 minutes away from the fields in Ardrossan, and the firstI knew of it was on the news. I can even see the wind farm from my house. As for why they failed, the speeds which the blades were turning, were much greater than the design specifications from the manufacturer and that the turbine that failed didn't shut down like the others in the field.

And the sheep just went about with their daily business.

Also did anyone see the video of the trampoline rolling down the street?

 

[LP94]

[video=youtube;UPKb9z4l7eM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPKb9z4l7eM[/video]

 

[ajt09]

Gonna be a week to batten down the hatches-yet again. Nice little storm moving in tomorrow with damaging winds up to 80mp. But it's going to be nothing compared to whats going to hit the north and the west on Thursday. Glad I'm staying in!

 

[ajt09]

Wow. Just been reading up on the impending storm we're getting. Being pushed in by a jetstream in excess of 230 mph-which means some areas will be getting absolutely clobbered. Would hate to be in the south tomorrow night/friday

 

[Joel`]

Wow. Just been reading up on the impending storm we're getting. Being pushed in by a jetstream in excess of 230 mph-which means some areas will be getting absolutely clobbered. Would hate to be in the south tomorrow night/friday

Knew I should have got my train ticket home earlier, darn.

 

[ajt09]

Knew I should have got my train ticket home earlier, darn.

It won't be as bad as scotland, but there's already power outages in the southern most parts. But it'll be worse if it suddenly veers northwards as it'll produce more snow for the midlands. But to put it very simply, lower the millibars, stronger the storm. in the next 24 hours the pressure is expected to drop from 988 millibars to 956-which is dam nasty and the centre is expected to skim the entire southern region counties. For some reason though the BBC is totally dumbing this info down and not telling people everything. Which reminds me of the 86 storm......

 

[Gregor]

On a side note, how embarrassing is it that this has been held up as an example of Scottish humor. No, not funny.

 

[Joel`]

It won't be as bad as scotland, but there's already power outages in the southern most parts. But it'll be worse if it suddenly veers northwards as it'll produce more snow for the midlands. But to put it very simply, lower the millibars, stronger the storm. in the next 24 hours the pressure is expected to drop from 988 millibars to 956-which is dam nasty and the centre is expected to skim the entire southern region counties. For some reason though the BBC is totally dumbing this info down and not telling people everything. Which reminds me of the 86 storm......

You sound like a total weather nerd. And your last sentence sounds like a line from the crazy, but inevitably right crazy old guy from a hollywood disaster movie.

 

[ajt09]

You sound like a total weather nerd. And your last sentence sounds like a line from the crazy, but inevitably right crazy old guy from a hollywood disaster movie.

Lot of people say that but far from nerd lol. But I'm more interested in the stormy stuff like tornadoes, hurricanes (mainly from my experiences in Hong Kong-and that was terrifying) severe thunderstorms etc and have been from age 7-there's a lot of things said at times where my eyes just glaze over. I just know about the basics lol

But a lot of meteorologists are saying the same thing that not enough info is being given out as the entire situation is changing on an hourly basis. Hopefully that'll be different tomorrow. Would hate to think something tragic would happen because of it.