whatyareckon

Wind industry spin doctors are struggling to explain away a troubling uptick in catastrophic and terrifying wind turbine collapses. Gravity is not kind to these 300-tonne monsters; hundreds of them have collapsed around the world and the rate of collapses appears to be increasing, over time.

Over the last few years, there have been hundreds of ‘structural failures’ – where either 10-15 tonne blades are shredded or flung in all directions; or their 90-100m towers implode, unceremoniously delivering the 80-100 tonne nacelle to terra firma, with exhilarating effect.

Then there are the hours-long pyrotechnic displays when these things self-immolate; exploding into balls of flame and toxic smoke and sending a shower of molten metal and over 1,000 litres of flaming gear oil, hydraulic fluid (see our post here) and burning plastic composites earthwards. By the way, wind turbine fires are ten times more common than the wind industry…