Go to Otherpower.com Home Page Go to Forcefield Shopping Cart Go to Wondermagnet.com Home Page
Front Page - [Homebrewed Electricity-- (wind) (solar) (hydro) (steam) (controls) (storage) (mechanical)] - Classifieds - Site News
Everything - Newbies - [Remote Living-- (housing) (heat) (light) (water)] - Rants & Opinion - Diaries - Our Products
Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma


By wiredwrong, Section Wind
Posted on Fri May 13th, 2005 at 01:28:19 AM MST
12 Mph winds

 
Cut and paste from the local news website here.....

Wind turbine falls near Weatherford

By Carrie Coppernoll
The Oklahoman

WEATHERFORD -- A week after it began producing energy, a 260-foot tall wind turbine near Weatherford collapsed early Friday.
NEWS 9 report

Witnesses reported an electrical explosion, but emergency workers found no fire at the FPL Energy wind farm, Weatherford Fire Chief Robert Anders said.

No injuries were reported.

As of Friday, officials don't know what caused the top two-thirds of the tower to crash, said Steve Stengel, spokesman for FPL Energy, the Florida company that owns the turbines.

"We've never had something like this happen before," Stengel said. "We really don't understand at this point why it happened."

The collapse was probably an accident, said Randy Cox, a Custer County Sheriff's investigator.

The wind was blowing about 12 mph, he said.

The nearest home is about a half-mile away, and the windmills aren't in a location to be dangerous to drivers, Cox said.

"It's not like any of them are so close to the road that they're going to fall into the roadway or anything like that," he said.

The Weatherford windmills began working April 30, Stengel said.

The windmill was one of 71 on the farm, Stengel said. About 30 turbines are scheduled to be added to the Weatherford project this summer, Stengel said.

The power generated at the Weatherford farm is sold to Public Service Company of Oklahoma, which sells the power to residential customers. Service was not interrupted, Stengel said.

FPL Energy also owns 68 windmills on a farm near Woodward and about 6,500 nationwide.

The company is the largest owner and operator of wind turbines in the world, Stengel said.

General Electric makes the company's windmill parts, and Wind Energy Constructors of California assembles them, Stengel said.


Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by srnoth on Thu May 12th, 2005 at 09:20:36 PM MST
(User Info)

Ouch!! Sabotage?



Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by pyrocasto (pyrocasto at hotmail dot com) on Thu May 12th, 2005 at 10:07:10 PM MST
(User Info)

That thought went through my head too. I just dont know how an electrical explosion could sever the tower where it did.

Maybe it was the so called, "witnesses"?
or maybe it was just a malfuntion since they do happen...

[ Parent ]



Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Trivo on Thu May 12th, 2005 at 11:05:43 PM MST
(User Info)

Do you think they forgot the Loctite?



Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by nothing to lose (nothingtolose175 at yahoo.com) on Fri May 13th, 2005 at 10:44:54 AM MST
(User Info)

Hard for me to see that break area clear enough, kinda grainy photo displaying, but it looks like a fairly nice neat cut line from here. Not all bent up and out of shape like you would think if it had bent and fell over. My view of that photo looks like a nice straight 2 section tower,

Oh OH, paranoha setting in,
I think this a plot of corporate corruption in progress, they see what we can do for ourselfs, so they sabatoge a few of there own, then they can claim how unsafe it is to have them near homes to ban us from building our own, but because they build in remote rural type areas they can be aloughed to be a monopoly becuase theirs falling down are safe.

Well I don't really think that of course, but I would not put it past some companies to try such tacticks.
.
nothing to lose

Spelin and tpying are my strong points, not electronics.



Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by windyknight on Fri May 13th, 2005 at 01:19:52 PM MST
(User Info)

They would be shooting themselves in the foot if they did! I know from experience 'jo public' always concerned about safety so most big companies stressing very good safety record. More likely guys who put bolts in got sidetracked and forgot most of them!
Just when you think things can't possibly get any worse- they usually do!
[ Parent ]


Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by richhagen (richhagen (a t) Juno.com) on Sat May 14th, 2005 at 03:46:57 PM MST
(User Info)

Hmm, improper assembly, material flaw, and design flaw, come to the top of my list in looking at this.  It wasn't overly windy, and the machine hadn't been installed for very long.  It looks to me like another good reason not to mount a heavy turbine on a tower near a house, or anything else of high value.  All machines will eventually fail.  Farmland seems like an excellent place to put these machines as the rest of the field would still be productive farmland with only a small percentage used for the turbines.  The land around the turbine would be almost always devoid of people and high value items.  If they fell, the only thing damaged would be some crops, and I have only heard of collapses like this rarely happening.  Rich
'A Joule saved is a Joule made'
[ Parent ]


Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by a15 (daveharvey83@yahoo) on Sat Jul 16th, 2005 at 07:22:59 PM MST
(User Info)

The collapse was not due to sabotage, mechanical failure, or constuction flaws. It collapsed becuase the turbine was brought to a full stop while in operation.

Inertia is a SOB.
A15
[ Parent ]



Re: Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by Peppyy on Fri May 13th, 2005 at 07:10:28 PM MST
(User Info)

From what I see this timing is coincidental too. I came upon this while trying to find a better photo.
        May 03, 2005 09:02 AM US Eastern Timezone

FPL Energy Begins Commercial Operation of Weatherford Wind Energy Center; Announces Plans to Expand Project by 40.5 MW

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050503005 619&newsLang=en

cowinkydink?
Pep



Wind Turbine failure in Woodward, Oklahoma | 8 comments (8 topical, 0 editorial)
Display: Sort:
Menu
· create account
· How to use the board
· FAQs
· search the board
· Google search the board
· Old Otherpower Board

Login
Make a new account
Username:
Password:

Total Views
  122 Scoop users have viewed this posting.

Related Links
· Also by wiredwrong

Powered by Scoop
You must be a registered user to post here. It's easy and free, and the link is on the upper right side of your page.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Postings are owned by the poster, but may be deleted or moved at the ADMIN's sole discretion. The Rest © 2003 Forcefield.
You can Email the board ADMIN here. PLEASE include the username you signed up with!