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Originally posted by fleabit
Ice from a plane might be plausible.. however.. it would be there. They went out immediately after this happening. I think they would have noticed a large chunk of ice, either from the blades, or from a plane that wrecked it.
Originally posted by ScottX
I've watched this thread with interest. Lots of speculation, few facts.
1)It was of course hit by something moving over 200 ft in the air...
2)It goes without saying that the turbine was hit by an unseen UFO...
3)The company knew its turbine was damaged within hours.
4)The story was circulating around the Globe long before the British media announced it.
5)The Sun newspaper claimed the blade was missing. The wind farm is 12 miles from the sea and the blade did not vanish into it. It was recovered on the wind farm but not below the mast. It is now in Germany undergoing forensic testing.
6)Of course, no one has actually seen the broken blade. It was removed long before the story broke in the UK. So, whatever the result of testing, anything remotely like alien residue will not reach the public domain.
7)The Government arranged the story that the blade was not missing and was found directly below the mast. This only emerged AFTER the story broke in the Sun and was an attempt to play down the distance it had travelled after being hit. The company will not state the distance from the turbine it was recovered.
8)As for broken blades. The UK press has misquoted an Ecotricity spokesperson as saying this happens five to six times per year, yet the official version on the Ecotricity website states 'this is a unique and isolated occurance'.
A bit of a difference there.
9)It should be noted that the blades face the same way across the farm. It will be obvious to investigators from which direction and from what angle the object struck the blade.
Scott L. Felton
Originally posted by LincolnUK
It is because of people like you that anyone associated with discovering the truth are able to be discredited as idiots.
Originally posted by KIRKSTERUK
Originally posted by LincolnUK
It is because of people like you that anyone associated with discovering the truth are able to be discredited as idiots.
Agreed. You should have to pass a test before you're allowed to post here.
That would help in keeping the posts at an intellectual level.
Absolutely everything to do with this incident has been hyped to something it's not. It's a failed fan. There's plenty of sources indicating that this happens. NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. NO proof that anything out of the ordinary happened AT ALL.
[edit on 10-1-2009 by KIRKSTERUK]
Originally posted by LincolnUK
HOT NEW NEWS?!?!
www.ecotricity.co.uk...
Speculation that a lump of ice falling from a plane at a normal altitude?
That's not a bad theory at all. However -
How heavy would the block have had to be?
Are we all in danger of falling ice blocks?
Why wasn't there any substantial ground damage?
Originally posted by JipStix
PS: Does anyone know if these blades are made of fiberglass or metal, or are they composite?
[edit on 10-1-2009 by JipStix]
Generalities
* Wind farm name : Conisholme Fen Re-submission
* Country : United-Kingdom
Wind turbines
* City : Lincolnshire
* Installation : 2008/05
* 20 turbine(s) Enercon E48/800 (puissance de 800 kW, diamètre de 48 m)
* Total power : 16000 kW
* Total wings surface : 36200 m²
* Developed by : Ecotricity
* Operator : Ecotricity
Installed power and production capacity
* Total installed power : 16 MW
* Yearly estimated production (see below) : 36 GW.h
* Supplied population by this windfamr (estimation, see below) : 14700 habitants
* Computation hypothesis : private consumption including home heating
Source
Rated power:
800 kW
Rotor diameter:
48 m
Hub height:
50 - 76 m
Wind class (IEC):
IEC/NVN II
Turbine concept:
Gearless, variable speed,
variable pitch control
Rotor
Type:
Upwind rotor with active pitch control
Direction of rotation:
Clockwise
Number of blades:
3
Swept area:
1,810 m2
Blade material:
Fibreglass (epoxy resin);
integrated lightning protection
Rotational speed:
Variable, 16 - 30 rpm
Pitch control:
ENERCON blade pitch system, one independent source
Eighty-five percent of the downtime experienced by a second southwestern USA commercial wind farm was lightning-related during the startup period and into its first full year of operation. Direct equipment costs were some $55,000, with total lightning-related costs totaling more than $250,000.
The influence of lightning faults on operational reliability turbines increases. In a study completed in 2002 it is expected that up to 8 out of 100 wind turbines could be damaged by one direct lightning strike every year. Between 1992 and 1995 Germany alone reported 393 accidents with damages due to lightning: 124 direct strikes to the turbine, and the remainder through the electrical distribution network
Direct and indirect effects of lightning can produce severe damages on electrical and mechanical components of wind turbines, being responsible for considerable unplanned downtime. The question is not “if” but “when”
the wind turbine will be stroked.
Most wind turbines of today include lightning protection. Typically, the lightning protection installed in the blade tip discharges the lightening inside the rotor blades, going around the nacelle and then down the tower thereby diverting the electrical charge away from the machinery. Very rarely does the lightning destroy a turbine completely. Damage, if any, is usually confined to a blade or blade tip and can be repaired or replaced easily.
Originally posted by highlander2008
Originally posted by KIRKSTERUK
Originally posted by LincolnUK
It is because of people like you that anyone associated with discovering the truth are able to be discredited as idiots.
Agreed. You should have to pass a test before you're allowed to post here.
That would help in keeping the posts at an intellectual level.
Absolutely everything to do with this incident has been hyped to something it's not. It's a failed fan. There's plenty of sources indicating that this happens. NO PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE. NO proof that anything out of the ordinary happened AT ALL.
[edit on 10-1-2009 by KIRKSTERUK]
It's the age old problem of what is proof. Seeing a man running carrying a smoking gun still doesn't prove he shot the person lying dead on the ground. You would think it likely he did it, but it's circumstantial, and open to further investigation. That's what we have here. A broken wind farm blade just does not get international press coverage on it's own, some of it is hype yes, but also a lot quite understandable concern, considering MANY witnesses involved saw things they were unable to explain, which is very unusual in itself in a "UFO" case.
Sure, people mistake a lot of lights in the sky but it's also easy to underestimate people's power of observation. Everyone knows what fireworks look like, planes flying at night, stars and even lanterns are now widely heard of and seen. When so many people independently see something which just does not fit what they have seen before, you do have to take note. People are not that stupid, especially living in rural areas where the local night sky is a very familiar sight.
I quote one witness
“It was huge” he said “At first I thought it must have been a hole where the moon was shining through but then I saw the tentacles – it looked just like an octopus.
It was an incredible site;I have never seen anything like it before. I have no idea what it was, all I can say is what I saw
[edit on 10-1-2009 by highlander2008]
Blade material:
Fibreglass (epoxy resin);
integrated lightning protection