The collapsed £2million Spanish Gamesa turbine was at Kilgallioch wind farm in Ayrshire which is operated by Scottish Power Renewables who failed to alert the public to the incident for SEVEN DAYS. By some accounts the natives are unimpressed .
Apparently the G114-2.5 MW turbine on a 328-foot tower “creased” at the access door at ground level.- debris was spread over half a kilometre.
Scottish Power refused to answer specific questions on the incident or provide a photograph of the debris.
"The £300million Kilgallioch development has 96 mills and will generate 239 mega watts to power up to 130,000 homes when fully onstream later this year."
Hang on.... here we go again ... powering "up to" "xxxxxx homes" and slyly avoiding any suggestion that the windfarm doesn't produce power when there's no wind - that wind being adequate to turn the turbines a mere 26% of the time. - imagine if your light switches had a similar performance?
To add insult to injury in the weasel wording and evasiveness extends to torturing the measurement numbers for the quantity of electricity generated - which is measured in mega Watt hours (MWh) - NOT mega watts... The distance to London is not 70 mph.
In all - embarrassing and - a fairly full on deployment of complete BS about the efficacy of windmills.
It looks as if about one turbine a year in Scotland suffers a catastrophic structural failure. Not a reassuring figure compared to say erm... bridges?
Update ....
oops! - there goes another one - BBC story - maybe the folk in 'Norn Iron have a slightly different view (something to do withe wood chips mebbe?) from the big offices on the mainland where they copy n paste press releases from renewables lobby groups? Time to send in the ideological rectitude Inquisition.
I checked the HSE website :
ReplyDeleteClass:"dangerous occurrences"
"the responsible person must notify the enforcing authority without delay, in accordance with the reporting procedure (Schedule 1). "
"NB: A report must be received within 10 days of the incident."
http://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/when-do-i-report.htm
"Structural collapse
ReplyDelete23. The unintentional collapse or partial collapse of—
(a)any structure, which involves a fall of more than 5 tonnes of material; or
(b)any floor or wall of any place of work,
arising from, or in connection with, ongoing construction work (including demolition, refurbishment and maintenance), whether above or below ground.
24. The unintentional collapse or partial collapse of any falsework."