Wind farm being torn down for scrap

A wind farm that has been in the Yorkshire Dales for two decades is being torn down, and is believed to be the first to be scrapped in the UK.

Terrific! I’ve seen a report recently that the energy produced by every (still) functioning wind turbine in the USA could be replaced by one Coal fired plant. The hint is they measure and describe Wind power in Kilowatts, Nuclear and Coal plants in Gigawatts. (Hint to liberal arts grads, Giga is bigger then Kila)

Man, have I been all over this…

Also, this from England.

Wrecked by gales again as windfarms get £300,000 to switch off…in high winds

And.

Do Wind Turbine Blades Ever Come Off? – UPDATED

Well, just a few weeks earlier, in mid May, a Siemens model B53 wind turbine blade came off at the Ocotillo wind turbine farm east of San Diego. The blade was 173 feet long and it didn’t happen during a storm, it just came off during the night. This is a new installation, just 6 months from brand new, not an old worn out turbine. Winds at the time were between 9 and 19 mph with gusts of 29 mph, something you would get on a regular basis wherever wind turbines are installed and certainly something we would expect to see here in North East.

Repeat, the blade was 173 long…!!!

Then, just one month earlier, on April 5th, the same model B53 blade came off a turbine at MidAmerican Energy’s Eclipse wind farm in Iowa.