Lube oil failure?

[squarebob]

Supposedly this was a lube oil failure.

[Carlb]

That's gona leave a mark.

[billswan]

squarebob

What part of the world did that happen in?

I am in southern minnesota and 3 of those burned up about 2 years ago never herd what happened to the 2nd one but someone said the first was supposed to have been bad software trying to apply the brake and not feathering the blade but don't quote that you know how story's can get twisted. One other one burned because the guys working on it accidentally caught some flammable sound proofing on fire, cost at least one guy his life.

Billswan

[squarebob]

Don't know where it was. A friend sent me about 15 pics of various units on fire or smoking bad.

[mike90045]

http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/2010/09/04/wind-turbines-bonfires-on-a-stick/

ecerpt:
The above image shows the second most common problem (after blade failure) that affects wind turbines: fire. This happens when transmission failures occur in these constructions. To date no gear oil has been invented to withstand the pressures produced within these transmissions. Recently, the U.S. government gave Dow-Corning a big grant to work on it. Previously, many others had tried and failed. Of course our idiotic politicians did not think about all that fibreglass and a little heat would cause such a bonfire with taxpayers' money! With a little bit of thought would of course they Climate Change scammers should have realised that wind turbines are in fact a magnet – or literally an electro-magnet – for lightening. Stuck up on a steel structure with a large electro-magnetic field they will of course attract every lightening bolt head their way. With pyrotechnic combination of inflammable glass-fibre and 200 off gallons of transmission fluid they are bonfires on a stick. Watching one of these burn would be an impressive sight. The generator is too high for most fire tenders to reach with the water pressure they have.

The Caithness Windfarm Information Forum has compiled an excellent report on Windturbine accidents and failures, click on the text below:
CAITHNESS WINDFARMS INFORMATION to download their report.

For your entertainment Dear Reader, we at the British Gazette have penned a little poem....

[squarebob]

another cool pic.......

[Tom Reed]

And even if a wind turbine on fire could be reached with a stream of water, would you want to take a chance that any electricity still in the tower won't travel down the stream of water to zap the firefighters. As a firefighter we're trained to think about such things.

[rl71459]

They (Forgot who... Maybe G.E. or Siemens) have been developing direct drive gens for these wind turbines. The claimed benefits would be Cost Reduction, Lower Maintenance, Higher Efficiency. They are still producing the Tranny Type currently. The Company I work for is a supplier to some of the Trans Manufacturers for these things. The Direct Drive Method will/may be a shift of technology/cost e.g. Large diameter low speed Gen. vs. Conventional Gen with Trans.

My understanding is that the Direct Drive Type is not yet proven for all applications. Will be interesting to see how it all works out! Last I knew was that the cost was greater for the needed electronics/electrical to make the Direct Drive work than the Required systems for the Trans Type. But I bet Time will solve that issue.

Sorry about the rambling...
Rob

[rcavictim]

They (Forgot who... Maybe G.E. or Siemens) have been developing direct drive gens for these wind turbines. The claimed benefits would be Cost Reduction, Lower Maintenance, Higher Efficiency. They are still producing the Tranny Type currently. The Company I work for is a supplier to some of the Trans Manufacturers for these things. The Direct Drive Method will/may be a shift of technology/cost e.g. Large diameter low speed Gen. vs. Conventional Gen with Trans.

My understanding is that the Direct Drive Type is not yet proven for all applications. Will be interesting to see how it all works out! Last I knew was that the cost was greater for the needed electronics/electrical to make the Direct Drive work than the Required systems for the Trans Type. But I bet Time will solve that issue.

Sorry about the rambling...
Rob

Quite alright Rob.  Rambling can be theraputic.  With your indulgence here's some more. 

In the late 1960's, I invented the bass shaker, taking a large 12" guitar loudspeaker magnet assembly and through spring suspension,  floating the magnetic assembly over a DIY voice coil securely mounted to a metal plate that was to be screwed down to a domestic surface and used to put low frequency sonic energy into the furniture or wall.  I made a successful project of the prototype in my Grade 8, hi-school metal shop class.  I don't know who holds the patent on this successful invention today.  It should have been me.  Unfortunately the elders around me were asleep.

Around the same time I was the fastest 100 yard dasher in the whole school.  I could do it in under 10 seconds.  I should have been noticed and funneled/groomed into the International Olympics but my Phys Ed teacher was a complete jerkoff asshole.  What do you think of a PE teacher that would follow the class of boys running the long block around the school complex in his VW Beetle rather than run with them?     Clearly another case where unfortunately the elders around me were asleep. 

Ten years ago I came up with a novel invention that eliminates the conventional gearbox while turning a high speed alternator from a low speed turbine blade. Insertion losses are vanishingly small. If I only had seed money to prototype and could afford to apply for a patent the world could benefit hugely from my idea.  I'm serious!

Thirty years ago I invented a propulsion device that recycled it's own reaction mass in a closed loop system.  It could have been powered by solar photovoltaics on a satellite in space and employed instead of the current technology based on limited-liftime-before-tank-is-empty hydrazine rockets.  Hugely expensive communications satellites now have to be retired because they have spent all their hydrazine propellant, not because the electronics have ceased to function.  They must be constantly 'course corrected' to keep them in their orbital slot allotments which are pretty tight boxes.  On rare occasions they even have to be walked around the orbit to line up with another country if they are re-sold.  I admit it, I'm a f#{^*&g genius.  What can I say? 

That's MY story and I'm sticking with it! 

[cognos]

There are plenty of high-pressure high performance lubricants that work perfectly well in wind turbines - many with specs that exceed the requirement by many orders of magnitude.

To say that "no gear oil has been invented to withstand the pressures produced within these transmissions", is patently incorrect.

It may be more correct to say that "no gear oil has been invented to withstand the pressures produced within these transmissions when an unexpected catastrophic internal failure is experienced." Sorta like motor oil in your car. If you have a massive internal failure in your car engine, and you keep your foot to the floor, your motor oil wiil most likely not prevent the engine from catching fire, and may even contributing to the fire and the total destruction of the entire car... not really the lubricant's fault... 

[XYZER]

I'm not a wind turbine ...or lube oil specialist but if the proper lube doesn't exist for the gear systems yet they sure have a lot of carts before the horses out there. 

[billswan]

you would certainly think that the temp of the transmission would be monitored and some computer would shut it down before the flash point of the oil was reached. With millions of dollars at stake in the structure it just seems that would have to be a must........

Billswan

[XYZER]

you would certainly think that the temp of the transmission would be monitored and some computer would shut it down before the flash point of the oil was reached. With millions of dollars at stake in the structure it just seems that would have to be a must........

Billswan

Or an low oil shutdown.

From personal experience big outfits like to blame their problems on other people!

[bschwartz]

Hey, if it is a GE windmill, they can just write it off on their insurance......... which they happen to own........... passing on the costs to the shareholders.  And taking a tax write off in the process

[DanG]

Direct drive? http://www.enercon.de/en-en/21.htm

Enercon has also pioneered flywheel storage; both for load balancing AND controls "on-tower" battery-less backup power.

How about a 415-foot diameter 7.5 megawatt turbine? http://www.enercon.de/en-en/66.htm