Wind Turbine in Ayrshire, Scotland catches fire in windstorm

published December 9th, 2011 | categories: Uncategorized | all categories

A wind turbine in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, Scotland caught fire during a wind storm on December 8, 2011. A press release was issue by Vestas of Aarhus, Denmark, the turbine manufacturer stating that:

Infinis confirms that a nacelle on a turbine at its Ardrossan wind farm, Ayrshire, Scotland, caught fire this afternoon in extreme stormy weather conditions. The fire had extinguished itself before the fire services arrived and did not result in personal injury. As a standard precautionary measure, all Infinis staff vacate wind farms when wind speeds exceed 55 mph and therefore no one was present on site at the time of the incident. The local distribution network operator, Scottish Power, was immediately notified of the incident and the site has been disconnected from the electricity network as a precautionary measure. The cause of the fire is not yet known and Infinis has taken immediate steps to investigate the incident fully.

Wind turbines generally shut down when wind speeds reach 55mph to remove the potential for damage. However, the malfunctioning unit demonstrates what can happen when things go wrong.

You can view a map of the Ardrossan turbine here. Below, an amateur video of the Ardrossan wind farm turbine. Winds during the storm peaked at 160mph.

kk

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