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Safety or Iowa
Call for Conisholme wind farm to be closed; Ecotricity say there is no danger to the public
January 7, 2009 in Louth Leader
January 7, 2009 in Louth Leader
A call has been made for the Conisholme wind farm to be closed - before someone is injured.
Coun Robert Palmer, Chairman of East Lindsey District Council, says the site should be closed off to the public while an independent health and safety investigation is carried out.
On Sunday morning local people woke to find a blade on one of the 89 metre high wind turbines in Fen Lane had broken off.
Has the tenacle UFO got something to do with the broken blades at Conisholme?
Engineers from Ecotricity are working to establish how a 20m blade mysteriously fell off a turbine at Conisholme wind farm - but residents have their own conclusions.
It is believed the a blade fell off the 89m turbine and another was left badly bent on Sunday January 4.
An investigation suggests an explosion and fire inside a Nebraska wind turbine was caused by a "foreign object". ...the "object" blew into the turbine causing the blast.
Crystal Lake quiets with halt in wind turbine work
December 30, 2008 by Mary Loden in The Britt News-Tribune
December 30, 2008 by Mary Loden in The Britt News-Tribune
Shortly after the majority of the Clipper turbines were erected it was discovered the blades had a manufacturer's defect. "Phase 2 has some minor repairs to the blades which is underway, but it will not affect energization," Ginn said. "Michael Bogie is our FPL representative that is managing the blade repairs for the Clipper turbines."
A North Dakota based construction company is facing three proposed penalties following a deadly Iowa wind farm accident last October. ..."The employer did not ensure the all terrain fork truck operators were competent and capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards."
IOSHA claims Wanzek "did not instruct each employee in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and the regulations.
The VORTAC building is located about eight miles west of Portland. A radio beacon that airplane pilots can use to determine their proximity to Corpus Christi International Airport poses an obstacle to a $300 million wind farm under construction in San Patricio County. ...The federal agency has taken issue with the turbines' collective proximity to and potential impact on the radio navigation signal, housed about eight miles west of Portland, according to a notice of presumed hazard filed by the FAA.
A Norfolk action group has highlighted the lack of industry regulation on wind turbines by producing its own report.
Campaign group 4Villages said there is a growing danger to the public from wind turbine accidents, with an increasing number of incidents worldwide involving giant turbines catching fire, losing propeller parts or shedding lumps of ice.
One of the blades of a Suez Energy North America V-90 wind turbine situated approximately 1,600 feet away, between her house and the Northumberland Strait, was damaged. Pieces were dangling from the blade and other pieces were strewn throughout a field, right up to her back door. ...Sabota reported that blades on two of the three turbines in Suez Renewable Energy North America's Norway wind park sustained some damage.
The Coast Guard report, which is not yet released, reportedly considers the 130-turbine project in Nantucket Sound "doable" but some in the audience found the simulated radar scenarios more than a tad confusing as they tried to pick out the boats from the false echoes and turbine blades. ...There are short periods of time when the vessels are subsumed into the turbines," Rugger concluded. "Inside the wind farm there are a lot of secondary reflections, and often times it's hard to pick out the vessels from that."
In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthome dated Thursday, the congressman [Rahall D-WV] requests that the federal Minerals Management Service delay issuing its final environmental impact statement "until the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has provided the public 60 days to review and comment on a third-party review of the radar study submitted by the Cape Wind project developers."
FAA wants proposed wind turbines trimmed
December 18, 2008 by Janet Hefler in Martha's Vineyard Times
December 18, 2008 by Janet Hefler in Martha's Vineyard Times
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently classified proposed wind turbine projects at West Tisbury School and the MV Arena (MVA) as presumed hazards to air navigation, given their location in the Martha's Vineyard Airport's flight paths. The FAA's decisions, which included recommendations for reducing the height of the two wind turbines, may literally take the wind out of the ice arena's project.
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Massachusetts]
Man burned while working on wind turbine near Dexter
December 17, 2008 by Tim Ruzek in Post-Bulletin
December 17, 2008 by Tim Ruzek in Post-Bulletin
A 33-year-old man is recovering from a severe electric burn he sustained Tuesday afternoon while working on a wind turbine north of Dexter ...Officials believe the turbine was electrically charged when Chlan was working on it, giving the worker an electrical burn on his left arm, Amazi said.
Transmission poses obstacle to wind power
December 13, 2008 by Philip Brasher in Des Moines Register
December 13, 2008 by Philip Brasher in Des Moines Register
The political winds are right for making wind power in Iowa. The problem is getting that power to the big cities that can use it. ...Proposals to give FERC more say over power transmission lines have foundered in Congress before, and the commission itself isn't united behind Kelliher's idea.
Under current law, the commission can promote investment in new transmission lines for wind farms by awarding developers a higher rate of return. That allows utilities to charge more for the power. But it's still up to the states to decide whether to allow the lines to be built.
Scott Rueter is fed up with the wind turbines that are near his home and with the company that owns them. Rueter, who was scheduled to voice his complaints to the board of supervisors at their last meeting but canceled because of illness, spent about an hour with the board on Tuesday. He said that the noise from the 2.5 megawatt turbines which are located near his home just east of Harris is overwhelming.
The wind industry concedes that, as with all tall things (buildings, for example, or trees), ice and snow can build up and, eventually, fall down, creating a hazard to people and structures below.
But the industry denies that "ice-throwing" - another concern surrounding wind power - is a problem. ...But a 2006 publication by G.E. Energy, a maker of large wind turbines, warns that "rotating turbine blades may propel ice fragments some distance from the turbine - up to several hundred meters if conditions are right."
Wind turbine closed after showering homes with blocks of ice
December 4, 2008 by Murray Wardrop in Telegraph.co.uk
December 4, 2008 by Murray Wardrop in Telegraph.co.uk
A wind turbine has been switched off and an investigation launched after its frozen blades showered nearby homes with large chunks of ice.
Residents complained when the 260ft wind generator began hurling shards of ice, some measuring two feet long, after the cold snap over the weekend.
Cause of Bloomfield turbine fire still under investigation
December 3, 2008 by Randy Dockendorf in Yankton Press and Dakotan
December 3, 2008 by Randy Dockendorf in Yankton Press and Dakotan
Three investigative teams will be coordinated to learn the cause of this week's fire atop a 260-foot wind turbine north of Bloomfield, the state fire marshal's office said Thursday.
The fire occurred at one of 27 turbines on the 80-megawatt Elkhorn Ridge wind farm under construction. Once completed, Elkhorn Ridge will become Nebraska's largest wind farm. ...Meanwhile, work has been suspended at the wind farm, Roberts said.
The worker is an employee of Vestas, a wind turbine manufacturer. A spokesman with that company said the incident was under investigation and details would be provided when they became available.
Olavarria said the worker was outside the turbine in front of its nose when the explosion and fire occurred. It's not clear what caused the explosion or what burned, but the turbines do have lubricating oil inside, she said.
Residents were left fearing for their safety after shards of melting ice fell on homes and gardens from the blades of a giant wind turbine.
For about four hours people in King's Dyke, Whittlesey, had to take cover as huge lumps - some two feet long - showered them from the 80 metre high tower on Saturday morning.
Resident Peter Randall, whose son's house lies a stone's throw away from the turbine, said: "Somebody is going to get killed. There was huge lumps of ice shooting off and landing everywhere.
An explosion and fire at a wind farm under construction in northeast Nebraska has injured three workers.
One man, who was atop a tower when a turbine exploded, received first- and second-degree burns in the fire Tuesday morning. Two others, who were nearby, were treated for smoke inhalation and released.