5 real dangers of wind turbines

Recently, a football field length wind turbine blade “snapped off,” throwing shards of fiberglass and temporarily closing six of Nantucket Islands beaches. While this is bad, I found something worse. A Red State article shows a wind turbine totally crashed to the ground.

Note these wind turbines cost over $1 million each and generate $1,500-$2,000 of revenue daily.

The International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) reported 1,500 wind turbine accidents from 2006-2010.

Data from 2019 shows there were 865 offshore accidents that year. The U.K. reported 737 offshore accidents in 2016 alone.

Data from 2022 shows there were 868 incidents involving wind farms with 325 occurring on a vessel, 300 occurring on a turbine and the rest offshore.

With all of these “accidents” you can forget about your power bill ever going down.

So, what kind of accidents occur with wind turbines?

Ice throws

These wind turbine blades build up ice in cold weather. When this ice builds up, an “ice throw” can occur where large chunks of ice are thrown from the turbine blades. This can be very dangerous when the turbines are near homes, roads, businesses or people. Several incidents of this happening have been reported in recent years with the problem getting worse as more turbines are being built in colder regions.

In one incident, “a piece of ice thrown from a turbine blade smashed through the windshield of a car driving past the turbine. Fortunately, the driver was not injured.”

In another incident, where a man was walking near a wind farm, he was hit in the head by a piece of ice thrown from the turbine blade, causing a serious concussion and hospitalization.

You can watch a video of ice building up and hear a concerned homeowner who lives about 1,100 feet from the turbine say that the builders claim when the blades ice, the systems shut down. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. Watch the physics video showing just how far one of these units can sling a chunk of ice.

Fires

The gearboxes of wind turbines are prone to overheat, burst into flames and “cause extensive damage to the turbine and surrounding area.” A wind turbine fire in the Netherlands did over $1 million dollars worth of damage and killed two people. A California wind turbine caught fire and burned 367 acres. A wind turbine in Michigan that burst into flames could not be extinguished because firefighters could not reach the height of the turbine, so they had to let it burn out. When a Washington state turbine burst into flames it burned 250 acres, and it took three days to contain the fire. A Texas wind turbine caught on fire, which, again, burned 250 acres.

It is unlikely fire departments can extinguish wind turbine fires due to the height of the structures.

It’s also stated that 91% of the fires go unreported.

Blades flying off

Then there is the problem of blades flying off. Three reasons are given for this type of failure: 1) severe weather, 2) improper maintenance, and 3) manufacturing defects. When a blade flew off the 250-foot structure in the Bronx, New York, it smashed a car and an illuminated billboard. The wind turbine had only been in operation for 13 days. Local politicians said it was “hastily” constructed “in order to make a buck.” They also stated, “A wind turbine should not be able to be taken down by the wind.”

In another incident, a man was seriously injured and had to be hospitalized after he was hit by a flying blade.

Exploding turbines

This is slightly different from the fires mentioned above in that it is considered the most dangerous, for when the turbine explodes the fire spreads to the blades, causing them to explode and fly off and damaging nearby homes, businesses, or people. One exploding turbine caused $1 million in damage to a nearby home. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Leaking mineral oil

Wind turbines leak mineral oil when a hose fails and maintenance is not regularly performed. This mineral oil is considered dangerous if it contacts people or animals, and it can seep into the ground, contaminating nearby water supplies.

There are a series of videos showing some of these accidents. Surprisingly, in some cases the entire tower failed and collapsed. Turbine blades must be replaced every 15 years, but disturbingly, the entire tower’s life expectancy is only 25 years. So, the New Green Deal converts our power grid to an energy source needing partial replacement every 15 years and total replacement every 25 years. We shouldn’t shut down nuclear reactors and destroy cooling towers just yet, as Germany is doing. It likely is going to be a cold winter in Germany.

We now have 70,000 wind turbines across the U.S. powering 43 million homes. Just one nuclear power plant powers 72 million homes. Nuclear plants cost $14-30 billion to build and last 80-plus years. In contrast, the 70,000 wind turbines will have to be replaced every 25 years at a cost of over $1 million each, which totals $70 trillion dollars every 25 years – and all of them combined only power 60% of the homes one nuclear power plant can power. For that amount of money, you could build 2,333 nuclear power plants powering 168 trillion homes. According to Statista Research Department, in 2022 there were only 144 million homes in the U.S. So, for the price of replacing the 70,000 wind turbines one time, you could build enough nuclear power plants to power 1,167 times more homes than exist in the U.S. So, is wind energy stupid or what?

At least Kamala Harris’ Green New Deal is bringing in new industries like “wind farm attorneys” to help in all the legal cases against these fire-blazing, blade-slinging, motor-exploding, ice-throwing, tower-collapsing monstrosities.

Kamala’s response: cackle, cackle, cackle.