PPL shuts down engines at Turkey Hill site at height of Irene
Intelligencer Journal|Ad Crable|August 31, 2011
For all the negative things that blew in with Hurricane Irene last weekend, you probably thought the new wind turbines on Turkey Hill, at least, were churning out the juice. Wrong. It turns out you can have too much of a good thing, even in the wind energy industry.
For all the negative things that blew in with Hurricane Irene last weekend, you probably thought the new wind turbines on Turkey Hill, at least, were churning out the juice. Wrong. It turns out you can have too much of a good thing, even in the wind energy industry.
For all the negative things that blew in with Hurricane Irene last weekend, you probably thought the new wind turbines on Turkey Hill, at least, were churning out the juice.
Wrong. It turns out you can have too much of a good thing, even in the wind energy industry.
The twin turbines owned by PPL Renewable Energy south of Columbia were shut down as a precaution at the height of the storm.
The turbines were taken out of service manually around 2 p.m. Saturday and were switched back on Sunday afternoon, PPL spokeswoman Miriam Mylin said.
"They are very stable structures, but we take precautions toward our equipment," Mylin said. "We would worry about damage to the turbines."
She said the wind turbines have automatic shutoff …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]For all the negative things that blew in with Hurricane Irene last weekend, you probably thought the new wind turbines on Turkey Hill, at least, were churning out the juice.
Wrong. It turns out you can have too much of a good thing, even in the wind energy industry.
The twin turbines owned by PPL Renewable Energy south of Columbia were shut down as a precaution at the height of the storm.
The turbines were taken out of service manually around 2 p.m. Saturday and were switched back on Sunday afternoon, PPL spokeswoman Miriam Mylin said.
"They are very stable structures, but we take precautions toward our equipment," Mylin said. "We would worry about damage to the turbines."
She said the wind turbines have automatic shutoff safeguards if there is a sustained wind speed of about 40 mph or if there is a wind gust of 50 mph.
A peak wind gust of 53 mph was recorded at Lancaster Airport. According to the Millersville University Weather Information Center, the storm sustained winds of 30 mph in Lancaster County.
The wind turbines reach their maximum generation capacity with winds at 20 to 25 mph. Anything beyond that does not increase electrical generation capacity. They need at least 6 mph to operate.
The wind turbines at Turkey Hill, just outside the Frey Farm Landfill, are 397 feet high, and each has a trio of 135-foot-long blades.
They began operation shortly before Christmas 2010 as a partnership between PPL Renewable Energy and the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority. The project cost $9.5 million.
All the power produced by the turbines is purchased by the adjacent Turkey Hill Dairy.