“Environmentally Friendly” Wind Turbine Fails, Spreading Fiberglass Shards over Nantucket Beaches
Green Energy Failure: Nantucket’s south-facing beaches are closed as a result…during the height of tourist season.
Progressives along the East Coast seem unmoved by the possibility that the “environmentally friendly” wind farms springing up along the coast are potentially the reasons for whales dying in the region.
Perhaps they may take a different view, as the beaches in Nantucket have now been closed because of the failure of newly installed wind turbines.
The federal government has ordered the Vineyard Wind farm to shut down until further notice because of a turbine blade failure this weekend.
Several beaches were closed on Tuesday while crews worked to clean up “large floating debris and fiberglass shards” from the broken wind turbine blade off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. A total of six south shore Nantucket beaches were closed to swimming due to debris that washed ashore.
“You can walk on the beaches, however we strongly recommend you wear footwear due to sharp, fiberglass shards and debris on the beaches,” the Nantucket Harbormaster said.
Fiberglass shards are sharp, and splinters can be extremely painful and difficult to remove. Having a beach loaded with this debris at the height of tourist season seems…sub-optimum.
Wind Turbine Blade Fail Scatters “Fiberglass Shards”. You can walk on the beaches, however we strongly recommend you wear footwear due to sharp, fiberglass shards and debris on the beaches.https://t.co/LBJJO6zBU7
— Marcus Cottus (@cottusmarcus) July 17, 2024
The blade had been newly installed and was undergoing commissioning testing when the failure occurred.
Craig Gilvarg, a spokesperson for Vineyard Wind, said shortly after 2:30 p.m. that the cause of the incident is still unknown.
Some time on Saturday, one of the three main 107-meter blades “experienced a breakage approximately 20 meters out from the root,” Gilvarg said. The affected turbine was still undergoing testing as part of its commissioning process.
Although the damage threw debris into the water, the blade was not completely severed and most of it remains attached to the turbine, Gilvarg said. A photo published by the Nantucket Current showed one blade hanging directly downward, parallel to the tower.
GE, which manufactured and installed the turbines and blades, will investigate the root cause, Gilvarg said.
In fact, the wind farm only started generating electricity in February.
The damage to the blade occurred on Saturday evening at Vineyard Wind, the country’s second large-scale offshore wind farm, which is 14 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. It’s still under construction but the first turbines began generating electricity in February.
The companies behind the project, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, plan to install a total of 62 turbines by the end of the year that could, at full strength, produce 800 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power more than 400,000 homes.
The turbines being installed at Vineyard Wind are enormous, featuring 351-foot-long blades that can reach heights taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Beege Welborne of Hot Air has some additional analysis, and noticed that the wind farm firm’s notification timeline seems less than responsive.
We just got the following statement from @VineyardWindUS “regarding an incident involving blade damage on a wind turbine in its offshore energy area”
pic.twitter.com/I9tBREFLc7
— Nantucket Current (@ACKCurrent) July 15, 2024
The offshore wind company knew the turbine blade was blasted all to bits on Saturday but only notified the beach community of Nantucket on *checks notes* MONDAY.
I have long chronicled the staggering failures of wind farms to live up to the hype. Scientific evidence and a serious review of the numbers shows that the power and reliability of wind pales in comparison to one traditional energy source.
This is just one more failure to add to the fail pile….fiberglass shards and all.
Meanwhile, the problems continue.
BREAKING (literally)
Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Skoust Moller and his team just exited the building and he came back and said he had an urgent matter to attend to.
It sounds like the remaining piece of the broken blade that was left hanging may have fallen off the turbine. pic.twitter.com/85Ejl3Hg7m
— Nantucket Current (@ACKCurrent) July 17, 2024
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Hey kids, if you want to play in the sand, be sure to put on the gauntleted kevlar gloves that we keep in the toy box.
Now being organized,
A Live-Aid concert for the Beach-Fronted Millionaires on Nantucket’s South Coast,
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71HWwaw1o4L._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg
Edit in progress for image of Nantucket,
https://fishernantucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Do-you-need-a-car-when-vacationing-on-Nantucket.png
Windmills up the Behind
You knew that it was over
When you were suddenly aware
That the turbine blades were turning
To dross beyond repair
Turbines, out at sea…
Broken shards of fibreglas
It’s clean en-er-geeee
About 20 years abo I worked on a carbon fiber autoclave curing project. Carbon is much stronger and lighter than fiberglass. That might be better for these large blades, but engineering of an autoclave big enough to cure one of those blades would be a challenge.
Better battery tech will be needed to allow evening out power distribution. .
It’s worth learning how to deal with fiberglass on your hand – warm water wash with mild soap and a towel gets most of it out. For the rest, duct tape pulls it out nicely, or adhesive tape for smaller area at a time.
Where do you get the problem? Those driveway stakes where the paint flakes off after a few years in the sun, when you pick them up. Also turbine blades.
And fiberglass insulation, which I stopped using a long time ago. They lie about the R value, in a fire the fiberglass melts and falls to the bottom of the cavity. If you use cellulose, it prevents spread of a fire. When I designed and built my own house 35 years ago, I also used all fire rated drywall. Those details can be the difference between losing loved ones or not.
Fiberglas will work its way into your skin an you can’t dig it out. Just like a deep state leftist.
And note: it is not biodegradable.
It’s as bad as, or worse than, a shattered CFL bulb.
No, the powder in fluorescent bulbs is poisonous.
Pretty sure they take them to the local landfill. Can’t be reused as far as I know.
Got behind a truck hauling a blade one time. Came to the state highway they needed to turn onto.
The trucker actually had a helper that got out, let most traffic pass, then got out and stopped the remaining vehicles far enough away from the intersection so the truck could make the turn. Those blades are huge.
The quoted story above (source: nbcboston) describes the blade as “107 meters”. That is approximately 330 feet, longer than a football field, including the end zones; the minimum statutory distance from home plate to the fence on the foul line is 325 feet. The outer diameter of the blades’ path is then 660 feet (plus the hub assembly). I am thinking that the 107 meters is either a typo or refers to another portion of the device. I am willing to be corrected by someone who knows this stuff.
Yep. Those are the actual numbers. Vineyard Wind uses the General Electric Haliade-X wind turbine which GE says has a blade of 107 meters – about 350 feet. Gigantic. They make a really cool sound when they crack and tip over.
That size blade is made by GE.
Someday, people will wonder what was in the heads of people who planned and installed these monsters. Horribly expensive to build, costly maintenance, and a life of sometime around 20 years. When will they learn?
A lifetime of 20-years with no plan to remove these behemoths once they’ve reached their useful life. Before any permits were approved, the companies that built these farms should have been required to place into a fully-funded escrow account, enough money to completely remove the windmills once their life is over. In 30-years (or far less), they’ll be nothing but eyesores and severe marine navigation hazards.
Ever see one of those things “go bang”?
One of my fellow human bears resides in Palm Springs and in the past three or four years he has seen two lose their governors and go into overspeed, and one had some sort of bearing or other seizure, breaking the propellor hub and sending the prop hurtling to the ground.
“Someday, people will wonder what was in the heads of people who planned and installed these monsters”
As with most high technology, these were first invented by Ancient Black Egyptians.
How do you think the Great Sphinx of Giza lost his nose?
They immediately shelved the idea to save humanity… and successfully, too, until it was exhumed by crazy white hippies.
Before rural electrification many farms has windmills for electricity production. Most were 2 blades. Thye were prone to self destruction. Then a company named Jacobs produced a 3 blade unit with a mechanical feathering device in the hub. They were the best in that market. I is not an accident that virtually all windmills today use 3 blades, regardless of size. Jacob’s is still in business.
The green stuff on the beach isn’t fiberglass. It’s the PVC, closed-cell foam that the fiberglass is laid-up on. If you have a fiberglass boat, that’s the ‘core material.’ Some of it is probably hardened by epoxy and might be uncomfortable to walk on. But, it won’t cut your feet. In that regard, it’s perfectly safe. The fiberglass can be seen in the video and it can be quite hazardous to handle when it it’s torn apart like that. The bigger problem with both materials (the fiberglass and the PVC foam core) is that they will take thousands of years to decay….if they ever decay. Along with plastics, it’s the worst kind of sea trash.
Not to worry. The Florence, Oregon Beach Debris Disposal Team is packing up to volunteer as we speak.
I post that up every year on it’s anniversary. Got to be one of the greatest video’s in history.
“From the Highway Department. How are you going to remove the whale”?
“Well, we have some spare dynamite”…
BOOOOOOM
“Wow, look at that”
RUN
Short class fires are also used in concrete. I never poor concrete without b fiberglass, mesh and re-rod. That greatly lowers cracking and keeps cracks from spreading.
Biden green new deal is trillion dollar fraud. smh
This makes me sad to see it. No, not sad, the other one.
So this is really the new black deal? Death to the whales, death to the inhabitants of planet earth.
Waiting a few.days to acknowledge the problem seems like a bad way to win public trust.
Why not? They took about 6 years to acknowledge that Joe Biden is mentally retarded.
… after knowing it since his college days.
How’s that working out?
I think you know the answer to that question. Horribly. More ‘fundamental transformation’ at the hands of an idiot Not only destructive, but demoralizing, as was their intent. God help us in November.
Lying liars usually end up telling one too many lies or the same lie too many times and the edifice crumbles when the foundation of lies lo lover supports it. Some skilled liars put off the day of reckoning for decades but eventually the truth comes out and slams them.
It’s nice to see that Beached Whale Season is over on the Northeast shore and we have moved into Fiberglass Shard Season.
I love the change of seasons …
Mutilated Seabird Season is right around the corner!
Nantucket … fiberglass shards all over the ocean and beach, but you will be arrested for plastic bags at the grocery store!!
Saw a great YouTube short about you can’t use a plastic bag to take home the plastic bottle of OJ, the pound of hamburger wrapped in plastic, the container of coffee in a plastic jar-like affair, some peanut butter in a plastic jar…
LOL!
Same with Starbucks. No, you can’t have a plastic straw, but here’s your giant, plastic cup and lid.
Save da Erf!
Sex on the beach is going to be a real bummer.
I’m sure AOC can whip you up a pitcherful that’s not too awful.
Sand always was a bummer in that context.
To see this happening in Nantucket, the home of the idiot progressive elites is extra special. They are getting it good and hard right now, dealing with the exact nonsense they subject all of us to. I’d love it even more if it wasn’t for the dead whales, fish, and sea birds. All sacrificed so progressives can feel better and superior to the rest of us…
It probably got struck by lightning. Who was dumb enough to think they could prevent all lightning strikes at sea?
They just need to pass a law, obviously. Duh!
The 4077th Pier Construction Group in Gaza?
Centrifugal force and imbalance in in a blade will rip the thing apart, no evidence of lightening.
“It’s clean, safe, environmentally-friendly energy because SHUT UP!”
(Mortally-wounded whale hoots mournfully off-camera)
Fiberglass the new asbestos