Wind Turbine Collapses: ‘Leaking Oil Everywhere!’

Posted: July 25, 2022 by oldbrew in News, turbines, wind
Tags:

Example of product type used by the wind industry


So much for ‘keeping it in the ground’, as climate obsessives like to intone to anyone who will listen to their anti-oil rants.
– – –
On Sunday, puzzled Swedish journalist and political commentator Peter Imanuelsen tweeted the news: “A wind power turbine just collapsed in Sweden”, says CNS News.

“People are being warned to keep their distance because…it is now leaking oil everywhere! “Wait, these “green” wind turbines use oil???”

In Sweden, a turbine at one of Europe’s largest and newest onshore wind farms collapsed on Saturday, RECHARGE News reports: “A turbine fell at the 475MW Nysäter project in northern Sweden around midday on Saturday”, said a statement on the project’s website.

“No one was injured but there was a suspected oil leak from the affected turbine’s gearbox and the entire wind farm is now closed, it added, urging the public to stay away.”

“Depending on its size, a wind turbine gearbox needs an oil quantity between 200 (53 gallons) and 800 L (211 gallons), according to a peer-review article published by MDPI, titled “Monitoring the Oil of Wind-Turbine Gearboxes: Main Degradation Indicators and Detection Methods.”

Patricia Pitsel, Ph.D., Principal at Pitsel & Associates Ltd. estimates that the typical wind farm requires about 12,000 gallons of oil: “Right now the average wind farm is about 150 turbines. Each wind turbine needs 80 gallons of oil as lubricant and we’re not talking about vegetable oil, this is a PAO synthetic oil based on crude… 12,000 gallons of it. That oil needs to be replaced once a year.

“It is estimated that a little over 3,800 turbines would be needed to power a city the size of New York… That’s 304,000 gallons of refined oil for just one city.”

Wind turbine accidents, like the one in Sweden on Saturday, are not uncommon, windAction reports.

Full article here.

Comments
  1. […] Wind Turbine Collapses: ‘Leaking Oil Everywhere!’ […]

  2. oldbrew says:

    More trouble in Sweden…

    “Family had to run to escape from falling parts of wind turbine blade”
    Monday 25 July 2022

    It is reportedly the second time that a blade failure has hit the 175MW Bjorkvattnet wind farm in Sweden

    An investigation has been launched after a blade failure on a turbine at a Swedish wind farm might have caused a “very severe” accident involving one family that was reportedly close to the incident.

    “Family had to run to escape from falling parts of wind turbine blade”

  3. Johna says:

    Wind (and Tidal) turbines also use lots of steel and gears and many other metal parts as well as electric and electronic control equipment and more gismos etc. Tidal has the further disadvantage of massive installation, poor reliability and extremely high generating and maintenance costs. Can you imagine a sub on stilts bolted to the sea bed and the propeller is the blade? Why of why cant our politicians see common sense and roll out sustainables in parallel with a corresponding support of fossil i.e. CCGT CHP With gas from our massive coal reserves fully integrated such that the overall plant thermal efficiency is >80%. And while were waiting to see if/when the sustainables can claw back on the need for fossil support, make more effort to replace our antiquated housing with high efficiency low power needs that are better to live in. Whilst they’re at it consolidate the CHP to heat the news houses factories office shops. May as well throw in a tramtrain network so we can step out the house and hey presto at work 20 miles away in a few minutes – no pollution in comfort and very affordable. In a nutshell why don’t our politicians hand the reins over to those who know how to run a country properly for the benefit and well being of its citizens. PS steel also needs coal – just saying.

  4. Jamie Spry says:

    Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
    ‘Green energy’ update…

  5. […] local pollen much farther and wider. They do contaminate the land when they crash down – see this report – but let’s not worry about that either. Perhaps nobody weeds the areas of solar and wind […]

  6. oldbrew says:

    Drove past eight wind turbines visible from the M6 in Cumbria today. None were moving.

    Weather – high pressure system taking over.

  7. ivan says:

    That large amount of oil is why the bird mincer fire in Texas, caused by a lightning strike, was so spectacular.

  8. oldbrew says:

    UK wind power (sic) has collapsed today, as it regularly does when a high pressure weather system passes by…

    Gas alone is providing ~36 times more electricity than wind at the time of this snapshot. How is heavy reliance on wind a viable future for electricity generation? It just isn’t.

  9. Coeur De Lion says:

    Following oldbrew, it looks like we might get some wind on Saturday but isobars across Europe remain pretty spread out so German windmills won’t be fending off Putin much.

  10. Mike Wattam says:

    Turbine mechanism failures are common I believe due to their compact size, gear and bearing failure is very frequent and there are inbuilt devices to stop the blades when the oil becomes contaminated (I am told).

    I am also told when the wind gets too high, the blades are stopped to prevent over-speeding of the mechanisms and over-stress of the blades. Blade failure is not so common and lethal to anything living nearby such as a flock of politicians. The blades are big bu..ers!

    It seems a lot of maintenance is required but I don’t see humans shinning up the poles with a box of spanners.

  11. oldbrew says:

    It seems a lot of maintenance is required but I don’t see humans shinning up the poles with a box of spanners.
    – – –
    The ladders are on the inside.

  12. oldbrew says:

    Another calamity of the green kind…

    -Bus Catches Fire Day After Conn. Mandates All-Electric State Vehicles
    JUL 27, 2022

    It’s really quite something when one of those big lithium-ion batteries suddenly explodes into flames.

    As usual with these lithium fires, they couldn’t extinguish it with water or anything else, and they just had to let it burn itself out.

    “Lithium-ion battery fires are difficult to extinguish due to the thermal chemical process that produces great heat and continually reignites,” Hamden fire officials said.

    Fortunately, no one was on the bus, and it was out of service on a Saturday morning.

    The Connecticut officials reacted to the incident by immediately pulling the entire electric bus fleet from service.

    https://climatechangedispatch.com/e-bus-catches-fire-day-after-conn-mandates-all-electric-state-vehicles/

  13. oldbrew says:

    Another one self-destructs…

    Wind turbine fire sees smoke billow across Hull
    Wednesday 3 August 2022

    The fire eventually self-extinguished, but a cordon remained in place at the site.

    The 125m turbine is thought to be the oldest in the city, having been granted planning approval in May 2007. It was erected a year later in 2008.

    https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2022-08-03/firefighters-tackle-wind-turbine-blaze-in-hull
    . . .
    Spectacular wind turbine fire sends clouds of black smoke across city
    Video shows blaze tearing through the gearbox and parts of the blades

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/03/spectacular-wind-turbine-fire-sends-clouds-black-smoke-across/

    Oil trouble…