Et Damages Wind Farm.

[Greyowl]

Article on BBC website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/7817378.stm

Edited January 8, 2009 by Greyowl

[shuggee]

You'd have thought aliens and their intergallactic craft would have sufficient technology to spot and avoid such big pieces of equipment?!

Quite a mystery

[Greyowl]

You'd have thought aliens and their intergallactic craft would have sufficient technology to spot and avoid such big pieces of equipment?!

Quite a mystery

According to the Sun newspaper they stole one of the rotor blades as well.

[Cookie]

do you think it has anything to do with the recent cold snap? the blade snapping of i mean not the alians

[Greyowl]

Maybe it Iced up like this one did.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/354...cks-of-ice.html

News travels fast.

http://news.smh.com.au/world/flying-object...90108-7cvr.html

[Cookie]

my last post vainished?

yeah I was thinking that was what happend greywolf, with how cold its been.

[Optimus Prime]

do you think it has anything to do with the recent cold snap? the blade snapping of i mean not the alians

There's a difference between UFO's and Aliens!

[Cookie]

There's a difference between UFO's and Aliens!

you know what i meant!

[Methuselah]

It was the lizard people. They're Cornish.

[PersianPaladin]

I think it was just local vandalism.

[Coast]

Looking at the rotation of the blades it looks like one failed at the root, fell downwards and hit the following blade at the outer part of the span and caused it to break at around mid span.

[Zenarcher]

Here's the link http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/news/ufo-hits-wind-turbine

And BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/7817378.stm

Edited January 8, 2009 by weathermaster

[Dave J]

IT's probably in some way related to the recent cold weather and subsequent thaw. There were balcony railings falling off buildings in Plymouth on the local news yesterday.

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/news/Cold-...il/article.html

[Zenarcher]

But they saw the lights in the video and the fact that they can't find one of the blades its weird. I don't think cold weather would tear off them.

[Greyowl]

Looking at the rotation of the blades it looks like one failed at the root, fell downwards and hit the following blade at the outer part of the span and caused it to break at around mid span.

Just what I thought Coastie.

Amazing though what lengths some aliens will go to for a piece of scrap.

[grab my graupel]

Here's the link http://www.ecotricity.co.uk/news/ufo-hits-wind-turbine

And BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/7817378.stm

Hi Sean, there appears to be two threads running on this same story

If you'll bear with me - I shall merge the two threads together

Brian

[Zenarcher]

Yep just realized my bad.

[AtlanticFlamethrower]

The strange lights were a parhelion which occured the evening before the bang, which occured at 4am.

The articles, like this one from the Daily Mail (which has a nice picture of the sun dog), give the impression the wind turbine broke at the same time as the lights were seen.

The wind turbine actually broke in the extreme cold, probably due to malfunctioned anti-icing system.

You know, it says a lot when newspapers would rather encourage us to believe in UFOs than global cooling.

[Cookie]

I suppose UFO stories will sell news peappers and be a nice light story in the new with all the current doom and gloom?

[Methuselah]

The strange lights were a parhelion which occured the evening before the bang, which occured at 4am.

The articles, like this one from the Daily Mail (which has a nice picture of the sun dog), give the impression the wind turbine broke at the same time as the lights were seen.

The wind turbine actually broke in the extreme cold, probably due to malfunctioned anti-icing system.

You know, it says a lot when newspapers would rather encourage us to believe in UFOs than global cooling.

But, UFOs are just that - Unidentifed, not necessarily extraterrestrial...And well, apart from ENSO, what global cooling is there to believe in?

PS: I don't believe in little green men, either. Little green scientists, perhaps?

[Tom D]

I don't understand how one could have fallen off and dented the other one in the opposite direction. Surely these things weren't spinning at the time because it's been very calm lately. The two blades which have been affected don't make sense!

[Rustynailer]

But, UFOs are just that - Unidentifed, not necessarily extraterrestrial...

I think that makes sense.

Although I did muse to myself:- Maybe it fell out of favor with the local god/deity, or maybe a secret diamond shape highly maneuverable stealth drone caught it with some jet wash (probably get turned over by the feds for that one )

I am sure there is a rational explanation, but from my heart I hope its the local god or an alien

Russ

[Zenarcher]

I don't understand how one could have fallen off and dented the other one in the opposite direction. Surely these things weren't spinning at the time because it's been very calm lately. The two blades which have been affected don't make sense!

That's what I was thinking to its puzzling

[Coast]

The Guardian is able to reveal one possible explanation - one with uncomfortably close links to the newspaper itself. Late on Saturday night, the Guardian's director of digital content, Emily Bell, was a mere two miles from the Ecotricity plant when she witnessed an unusual light show in the night sky: the firework display she and her brother had arranged in their parents' garden to mark their father Peter's 80th birthday.

"There were several roman candles, and some of those ones which are orange and have the little blue dots when they go off," Bell said yesterday. "My brother said he got them from the local garden centre. Because it's so flat in that part of the world, you can see for miles and miles. So if you were perhaps a certain distance away and perhaps had had a drink, you might mistake them for orange balls of fire."

The next morning they noticed the shattered turbine, visible from the bottom of her parents' garden, and joked that one of their rockets might have damaged it. "There we are in the middle of a scoop and we're beaten to it by a red-top tabloid," Bell's mother, Bridget, 74, said. Bell's husband, Ed Crooks - who happens to be the energy editor of the Financial Times - also found himself beaten to the story.

"I think the fireworks certainly might explain the lights in some instances," Vince said last night, adding that there was "absolutely no question" fireworks could have caused the "catastrophic failure" of the turbine. For that, the company is continuing to consider metal fatigue, and looking into the possibility of a cow-sized piece of ice falling from a passing plane, which might explain the absence of other debris at the site.

www.guardian.co.uk

A statement from Ecotricity on their website reads:

Early Sunday morning we had a turbine failure at our wind park in Conisholme, Lincolnshire. Engineers are carrying out a thorough investigation. We don’t as yet have any evidence that points us to a cause ... but speculation in the press is rife.

We do take this very seriously. Our engineers and Enercon's are carrying out a thorough investigation. We don’t as yet have any evidence that points us to a cause. There is nothing obvious in what we’ve found so far, no tell tale signatures of, for example, lightning strike or collision.

We've examined the turbine, the fallen blade and the surrounding area, looking for clues. We also sent parts of the fallen blade away for more forensic testing. We have been liaising with the Health & Safety Executive and the local council. Both are satisfied that this is a unique and isolated incident. We, and they, have no concerns with the ongoing safety of this, or any of our other wind parks

www.ecotricity.co.uk

Although I suspect this part of a Wiki article points to a possible cause of the failure:

Utility-scale wind turbine generators have minimum temperature operating limits which apply in areas that experience temperatures below -20 °C. Wind turbines must be protected from ice accumulation, which can make anemometer readings inaccurate and which can cause high structure loads and damage. Some turbine manufacturers offer low-temperature packages at a few percent extra cost, which include internal heaters, different lubricants, and different alloys for structural elements. If the low-temperature interval is combined with a low-wind condition, the wind turbine will require an external supply of power, equivalent to a few percent of its rated power, for internal heating. For example, the St. Leon, Manitoba project has a total rating of 99 MW and is estimated to need up to 3 MW (around 3% of capacity) of station service power a few days a year for temperatures down to -30 °C. This factor affects the economics of wind turbine operation in cold climates.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki

Looks like it was the recent very cold conditions and no wind that did it!

Edited January 9, 2009 by Coast

[Methuselah]

I think that makes sense.

Although I did muse to myself:- Maybe it fell out of favor with the local god/deity, or maybe a secret diamond shape highly maneuverable stealth drone caught it with some jet wash (probably get turned over by the feds for that one )

I am sure there is a rational explanation, but from my heart I hope its the local god or an alien

Russ

Asgard?