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And of course, wind proponents will need to also include the cost of backup by other sources when plants are temporarily or permanently disabled by such events.

1st, nice catch J. (and spot on comment.)

Seriously, wind installations, particularly in north america, have a lot of experience with fire. Windparks are never installed in forested areas.  They are installed in grasslands, farmlands, or at worst some brushy areas. They have often been subjected to fires sweeping the lands, and sometimes even caused them. There has been very little damage to the turbines themselves, or even to the equipment on the ground (though there are instances of some damage.)

In far more cases, the development leads to increased fire protection and fire breaks, from roadways and construction clearing. In very rare instances, the turbines themselves, like any electrical equipment, have started fires.

All of it is covered in standard, financeable insurance contracts.

I've been on the ground as fire swept through hundreds of acres or more, and the turbines were not damaged. In the Altamont, we had fires because a local sport would be shooting out the transformer coolant (typical amurkan sport).

to my knowledge, all radioactive material produced by operating windplants is stored onsite only briefly, then shipped by horse and buggy (with armed federal cowboys) to the central wind half-life facilities in El Paso.  Europe uses underwater storage in Venice.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 10:37:06 AM EST
Windparks are never installed in forested areas.

Except in Bavaria and Baden-Württenberg. (The article says that the area to be cleared for the foundation and the crane is 1350-2400 m² per turbine.) Some are well visible between Ulm and Stuttgart.

I can imagine damage to the blades when flames shoot up high and there is a sustained flow of hot air in a full-blown forest fire. But do those happen in Germany at all? (As opposed to fires fed mostly by the undergrowth?)

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 11:58:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You are correct, there are exceptions which i was aware of; never should have said never.  There will continue to be forested ridgeline windparks developed, and they will incur a bit of extra insurance.  Such parks represent far less than half percent of total, my guess.

Notice the taller towers. Forest areas create extra turbulence, so turbines must be even higher to be effective.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 12:28:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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