wind turbine fire

[Andy™]

One can only speculate what happened here. Did the blades not furl but the brake was applied regardless causing the brake to overheat and catch fire?

i was thinking something similar. id imagine if they were at an angle to catch the wind, then in strong winds, it would take a lot of braking force to stop it. dont know what type of braking system it uses (guessing disc or drum?), but if its not large enough would overheat rapidly and lose braking power.

makes you wonder how fail safe these things are - obviously each one will need power to apply brakes & work other control systems if its too windy, so whats the plan incase of strong winds & (external) power failure?

 

[steptoe]

Im just worried about all these houses with solar PV bursting into flame when we get too much sun!

 

[benji]

i wonder if thats one of the second hand units from europe

 

[Revved Up Sparky]

When wind turbines were invented it created a revolution.

 

[Technician]

I have heard that the blades should feather above 10/12 kts wind speed.

I may be a bit out. The generator, being asynchronous, is energised

while the turbine is turning and this is how the power is generated. I can

only imagine that there is (or should be) a mechanism to de-energise the

generator stator when the blades feather. There is plenty of scope for

a fire if the stator is permanently energised and then develops a fault either

between windings or to the frame.

If there is a brake, which has been suggested, and the blades failed to feather,

the root cause of the fire may have been the brake material itself.