A call to the local fire department went out when this 400 foot tall turbine caught fire on Saturday night. Firefighters could do little besides watch it burn.

From New York State

WIND TURBINE CATCHES ON FIRE; ALTONA FIRE FIGHTERS RESPOND

Via www.wptz.com

January 28, 2012 

ALTONA, N.Y. — Firefighters said a wind turbine caught fire in Altona, N.Y. saturday night.

Clinton County fire officials said people driving by the windfarm called in to report the fire. Altona firefighters responded to the scene.

County fire officials said only one wind turbine was on fire, and nobody was hurt.

Winds were gusting up to 25 MPH in the area.

Investigators said it was too early to determine a cause.

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: Another story of trouble in the same wind project:

WIND TURBINE COLLAPSES IN ALTONA

Via Press Republican

March 6, 2009

ALTONA — Area residents were startled Friday morning when they heard what sounded like an explosion at Noble Environmental Power wind park here.

The repetitive booming noise lasted a few minutes, as a massive turbine collapsed to the ground off Fisher Way.

Noble officials said the 9:45 a.m. collapse sparked a small fire at the base of the turbine.

Neighbors could see thick, black smoke billowing at the rural wind park as Altona and Ellenburg Depot crews arrived to extinguish the blaze.

No one was injured during the collapse.

The entire Altona wind park was shut down after the accident, but officials said no danger was posed to the public.

After two years of construction, dozens of turbines are scattered across the Northern Tier. There are about 270 turbines between the various projects in Clinton and Franklin counties.

It can take weeks to construct and energize a single turbine, which at full height stands about 392 feet tall.

Friday’s collapse was the first major incident at any of the area wind parks, which are insured.

Noble officials are continuing to investigate and refused Friday to release any additional information or say whether the collapse caused any other damage.

In a news release, Noble Environmental CEO Walt Howard said: “Noble values the safety of its employees and neighbors above all else. Noble has committed its full resources to understanding the cause of this incident.”

Local firefighters referred all comments to Noble.

It was still unclear Friday afternoon what caused the collapse.

NOTE FROM THE BPWI RESEARCH NERD: The video below is from a wind turbine fire in Scotland less than two months ago. The turbines in this video are the same scale as turbines in Wisconsin.

From Texas

ANOTHER WIND TURBINE SPARKS UP SOUTHWEST ABILINE

By Denise Blaz

SOURCE: Abilene Reporter-News, www.reporternews.com 

October 3, 2011 

“I would gather that the turbine was spraying out debris up to three football fields,

Energy officials say they are taking down a charred 260-foot wind turbine to determine the cause of a fire that began Sunday evening in a rural area west of U.S. 277 and County Road 618, the second turbine blaze to hit the area in the past six weeks.

Sunday’s fire occurred less than a five-minute walk from the country home of state Rep. Susan King.

In an interview with the Reporter-News, King said the fire lit up “like the Paramount sign,” and was akin to a “Roman candle, with balls of fire flying out and onto the ground.”

She said she and her husband, Dr. Austin King, were just about to return to Abilene around 10:30 p.m. that night when they saw the fire erupt and reported it to authorities.

Volunteer firefighters from the Elm Creek Citizens Association, Buffalo Gap and View worked to put out the blaze, which fire officials said sparked a grass fire.

The fire on the wind turbine itself was not able to be extinguished because of its height, said ECCA Fire Chief Gary Young.

Young said firefighters faced hazardous conditions as the turbine began scattering debris on the ground.

“I would gather that the turbine was spraying out debris up to three football fields,” Young said. “Especially in an area like that, it was challenging because of the rough terrain. By nature, those are not good conditions for a fire.”

Young said fire crews remained on the scene until 4 a.m. to ensure that no flare-ups would occur under cedar trees, which are known to build a carpet of needles on the ground.

The fire is the second in the past six weeks in the Callahan Divide wind farm, which contains 74 turbines.

A previous blaze was reported Aug. 25 in the same area.

A spokesman for NextEra Energy, the company that owns the turbines, called the fires unusual.

“We have had two fires in a relatively short period of time,” said Steve Stengel, the NextEra representative. “Fires of this nature are very unusual. This week we expect to have a crane at the facility to take down the turbines to try to finalize things.”

Stengel said that after the turbines are down, the company will be able to complete an investigation as to the cause of the fires.

The rest of the site, Stengel said, continues to operate.

He said on-site technicians regularly maintain the turbines.

The Callahan Divide Wind Energy Center went into service in 2005 and operates on a 6,000-acre site in Taylor County, roughly 12 miles southwest of Abilene.

LIGHTNING STRIKE BURNS DOWN WIND TURBINE

Source: Sioux City Journal, www.siouxcityjournal.com

August 2, 2010

By Michele Linck,

PETERSON, Iowa — A lightening strike started a fire in a wind turbine Saturday morning, destroying the turbine and one of three new blades that had been laid out on the ground beneath it in order to be installed as replacements. Damages totaled $760,000, according to Peterson Fire Chief John Winterboer.

The turbine was owned by Aes Wind Generation Inc., of Alta Iowa.

Winterboer said the call came in at 7:30 a.m., but firefighters were on the scene until 3:30 p.m. because they had to wait for the turbine and its three blades to burn enough to fall the 210 feet to the ground before they could extinguish the smoky blaze.

Winterboer said the company valued the turbine at $700,000 and the new blades at $60,000 each. He said his department was able to save two of the new blades. “We got the fire out and saved them,” he said on Sunday.

Passersby who called 911 initially reported several turbines were on fire, Winterboer said, but it was only drifting smoke they saw amongst other nearby turbines.

Although Peterson is in Clay County and the burning turbine was is Buena Vista County, the Peterson Fire Department was the closest and got the call. Winterboer said that was the third or fourth turbine fire his department had put out in about 12 years.

MORE ABOUT WIND TURBINES AND LIGHTNING

Wind Turbines and Lightning

SOURCE: http://www.nachi.org

by Nick Gromicko and Rob London

 

 Wind turbines are tall, isolated towers composed of sensitive electronics, all of which are factors that make lightning a persistent and real threat. A properly installed lightning protection system, however, will intercept the lightning and effectively and safely conduct it to the earth without risking physical destruction to the wind turbine. This issue has become increasingly critical as wind turbine systems become more sophisticated and vulnerable to lightning. Lightning protection systems costs less than 1% of the total capital expenses while improving the cost-effectiveness and reliability of a wind turbine substantially. 

First, a few facts to convey the danger that lightning poses to these power-producing windmills…

• According to a German study, lightning strikes accounted for 80% of wind turbine insurance claims.
• During its first full year of operation, 85% of the down time experienced by one southwestern commercial wind farm was lightning-related. Total lightning-related damage exceeded $250,000.
• The German electric power company Energieerzeugungswerke Helgoland GmbH shut down and dismantled their Helgoland Island wind power plant after being denied insurance against further lightning losses. They had been in operation three years and suffered more than $540,000 (USD) in lightning-related damage.

Wind Turbine Component Damage

 

The following systems, arranged in order from most to least vulnerable, may be damaged by lightning strikes:

• damage to the control system. These include sensors, actuators, and the motors for steering the equipment into the wind. According to the updated National Fire Protection Association handbook: “While physical blade damage is the most expensive and disruptive damage caused by lightning, by far the most common is damage to the control system”;
• damage to electronics. Wind turbines are deceptively complex, housing a transformer station, frequency converter, switchgear elements, and other expensive, sensitive equipment in a relatively small space;
• blade damage. A lightning strike to an unprotected blade will raise its temperature tremendously, perhaps as high as 54,000° F (30,000° C), and result in an explosive expansion of the air within the blade. This expansion can cause delamination, damage to the blade surface, melted glue, and cracking on the leading and trailing edges. Much of the damage may go undetected while significantly shortening the blade’s service life. One study found that wood epoxy blades are more lightning-resistant than GRP/glass epoxy blades;
• damage to generators; and
• batteries can be destroyed, or even detonated, by a lightning strike.

Note that lightning dangers increase with turbine height.

 

The National Lightning Safety Institute finds that lightning codes, in reference to the danger lightning poses to wind turbines, “provide more benefit to commercial vendors than to those seeking relief from lightning's effects” and that “devices that claim to offer absolute protection abound in the marketplace, confusing specifying architects, engineers, and facility managers.”

 

An article published in Solar Age Magazine offers the following recommendations for wind turbine lightning protection and inspection:

• Every wire that enters the electrical panel box should have a surge suppressor grounded to an existing ground rod. The installation should have only one ground rod, which should make “better contact with the moisture in the ground than do the tower footings.”
• Lightning rods are not likely to protect the windmill’s electronic equipment. Furthermore, lightning rods may obstruct the flow of wind around the turbine’s blades, reducing the system’s efficiency. This advice contrasts with that offered by Machine Design Magazine, which states that “Franklin-type lightning rods protect [wind turbines] against direct lightning strikes.”

In summary, wind turbines are extremely vulnerable to lightning, but the danger can be mitigated by lightning protection systems.