The Journal Pioneer
Summerside, PEI
26th Dec 2008
NORWAY – Norway resident Ethel McHugh got up from her chair Monday evening to investigate what she thought was a snowplow in her backyard.
“I was trying to figure out what was going on,” she said.
“I just went like this,” she said, placing her hand against the glass, “and as soon as my hand touched it, the vibration.”
That vibration stopped suddenly within about three minutes and it was not until the next day that she learned the likely cause of both the noise and the vibration.
| Lloydie Shea gathers up some of the fibreglass debris that blew off a wind turbine blade during a wind storm. Company officials still have to determine the extent of the damage but they believe the strong wind was its cause. Eric McCarthy/Journal Pioneer |
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.
A Suez Energy North America crew scrambled on Christmas eve afternoon to gather up the debris before another snowfall rolled in to bury the fragments.
The debris was generally lightweight, narrow bands of fibreglass wrapping.
For McHugh’s brother, Lloydie Shea who lives in Anglo, the scattered debris is further confirmation that wind turbines have to be set back a greater distance from residential properties. Shea is a member of Save Our Unspoiled Landscapes, a group opposed to large-scale wind energy production in residential neighbourhoods.
The wind turbines had been shut down due to high wind earlier in the day.
Danni Sabota, from the company’s communication department in Houston said the turbines at Norway and West Cape were shut down around 11 a.m. Monday and were not manually turned back on until Tuesday afternoon.
The company is blaming the damage on a storm that battered Canada’s east coat. “That’s what we think is the situation: the bad storm, the bad winds coming through,” she said.
Sabota reported that blades on two of the three turbines in Suez Renewable Energy North America’s Norway wind park sustained some damage. She said specialists will be checking the turbines in the coming days to determine the extent of damage.
“It looks like there is some damage to the exterior, the fibreglass that covers the blades,” she said.
Specialists should be able to determine whether the blades can be repaired on location or they will have to be taken down for repairs. They might also be able to determine the cause of the damage.
Whether the blades were turning when the damage occurred had not been determined. Sabota said the turbines were offline at the time and the blades should not have been turning.
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What does it take for governments to understand that these things are dangerous?? These fragments flew 1600ft! That's nearly 500m. With a decent safety zone, that makes the 2km we have been asking for too close!
3 comments:
Yeah, because nothing else flew in that storm. Vinyl siding was ripped from houses, whole sections of shingles were taken off houses and barns whickh damaged vehicles. Trees and power lines came crashing down. Lets get rid of all those things too because they are not safe. Oh yeah, we can't live without power. A lot of us are willing to use power from nuclear power plants and coal, instead of being open minded about green power. Who cares if there is still a livable environment for our children and grandchildren.
Are those really your comments, Lisa?, in the last paragraph, starting with "What will it take for our Government to realize that these things are dangerous"?
Are you for real?
The picture that you have attached is a pint size compared to the piece of siding that I had to remove from beside my car the day after that storm and I was in the Valley. Are you seriously insisting that a small piece of fiberglass that blows around in the wind is a cause for Danger. What will be next Lisa? Ban Tim Horton's because their cups, when ammassed in great quanity on our highways from all the litter, are a road hazard?
Sounds crazy doesn't it, well so do you!
Bruce in Halifax
If you re read the post you'll find that these pieces travelled 1600 ft.
How far did the vinyl siding,shingles,trees,power lines etc travel?
These towers/blades stand a couple of hundred feet into the wind stream which is usually more powerful at that height and which adds to the forces experienced by these materials and as in this case exceeded the design specifications.
...and with the estimated effects of global warming we might expect even higher speeds/intensities/etc
with more downtime for these power generators which only produce when the wind blows anyhow.
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