Went to see a big turbine yesterday

[DamonHD]

This is the first time I've had the opportunity to get up close and personal with a commercial grid-connected turbine and hear what noises it makes, etc.

Here's one of the pics: see the Preview Index further down the page or use the prev/next links near the top to see others.

http://gallery.hd.org/_c/mechanoids/_more2009/_more11/turbine-wind-500kW-capacity-plus-monitoring-an



d-electronics-10-DHD.jpg.html

I also got to peek inside the electronics shed and see the output power vs windspeed.

So, I heard three lots of noise:

 * The 'swoosh' from the blades.

 * The 'washing machine' mechanical noise from the generator at the hub.

 * The 'PC fan' noise from the inverter/electronics on the ground.

Slightly different to what I expected, and possibly a bit louder, but not by any means unbearable.  For example, when we got out of the car about 50m away the radiator fan drowned out any noise from the turbine!

Rgds

Damon

[wdyasq]

Looking for the scarasm button .... where did I leave it?

Ron

[DamonHD]

Dunno.  Maybe I should have taken a large frozen turkey to chuck at it for the conspiracy theorists!  B^>

Rgds

Damon

[Gary D]

 Gee Damon, when you get an up close view of a 1.5 or 2 meg unit, it won't seem too much larger... Have to look for tossed turkeys there too...

 :-)  Gary D

[RandomJoe]

Cool!  Every time I see the big turbines in western Oklahoma (dunno just how big they are, larger than the one in your picture though, I think) I wish all over again I could see one up close and personal!  Wonder if they would ever give tours...?

I keep seeing ads for Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs on Discovery, one of the clips is him on top of one of the things.  I still haven't caught the episode where he goes there, darn it...

One of these days hopefully I'll have enough time coming home and I can at least get off the interstate and drive nearer them.  There are some public roads close enough to some I could at least get a close look and hear what they sound like.

[Perry1]

That turbine looks like a smaller Enercon unit. Their older blade design made them quite loud. They have the distinction of not having a gearbox. I didn't think they could sell in the US due to patent infringement issues. Enercon also makes the biggest wind turbine in the world. 6 MW. I had the opportunity to tour it. Seeing it is almost a life changing experience. Couldn't take pic's because I was working for GE wind at the time.

Perry

[independent]

We got a few of those (in the picture) up the hill from where I am at the moment. The big ones are another kettle of fish for sure. 3 massive blades and because in New Zealand our standard unit of measurement of length is "the rugby field" (not metres or kms as some would think) the blades look nearly one unit long!

[Jon Miller]

Thats a baby one now, but non the less still powering 400 houses.

Heres the 6MW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQxp6QTjgJg

Regards

[Junkie]

Is this the Dans next project ?

[DamonHD]

It is indeed an old Enercon.

Rgds

Damon