clearvision Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 National Post:A $200-million wind farm in northern New Brunswick is frozen solid, cutting off a potential supply of renewable energy for NB Power.The 25-kilometre stretch of wind turbines, located 70 kilometres northwest of Bathurst, N.B. has been completely shutdown for several weeks due to heavy ice covering the blades.GDF SUEZ Energy, the company that owns and operates the site, is working to return the windmills to working order, a spokeswoman says.“We can’t control the weather,” Julie Vitek said in an interview from company headquarters in Houston, Texas. “We’re looking to see if we can cope with it more effectively, through the testing of a couple of techniques.” -----Just when you need that green power the most.... not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valin Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Really cold weather freezes machinery! Who knew! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SrWoodchuck Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 La-de-freakin'da and hahaha! "We can't control the weather," said the company that harvests wind for power. Plans are to erect a giant "Bic" lighter and wave it slowly under each of the wind turbines. The cost of the giant lighter & the fuel required to heat the wind turbines, will be recovered after the turbines begin to turn again; over a period of several hundred years. Ratepayers are obligated to fund repairs until then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evad Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Wouldn't happen with nukes, but, certainly can't have anything that's reliable and efficient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepper Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 Evad Wouldn't happen with nukes, but, certainly can't have anything that's reliable and efficient. We cannot tolerate reliability and efficiency. Like US, Canada wants hope and mostly change. Cold weather and Canada didn't ring a bell with the engineers and the sales staff? There is no mention of this incident at the GDF SUEZ website. http://www.gdfsuez.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCTexan Posted February 16, 2011 Share Posted February 16, 2011 The "fix it teams" can't get to the turbines because the batteries in their Chevy Volts have run down.... and there's no turbine juice to charge them up. The endless cycle of despair: No turbines, no juice... No juice, no Volts... No Volts, no repairmen... No repairmen, no turbines... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valin Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Evad Wouldn't happen with nukes, but, certainly can't have anything that's reliable and efficient. We cannot tolerate reliability and efficiency. Like US, Canada wants hope and mostly change. Cold weather and Canada didn't ring a bell with the engineers and the sales staff? There is no mention of this incident at the GDF SUEZ website. http://www.gdfsuez.com/ Cold weather in Canada? Have no fear Global Warming will solve this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clearvision Posted February 17, 2011 Author Share Posted February 17, 2011 Wintery conditions also temporarily shutdown the site last winter, just months after its completion. Some or all of the turbines were offline for several days, with "particularly severe icing" blamed. The accumulated ice alters the aerodynamics of the blades, rendering them ineffective as airfoils. The added weight further immobilizes the structures. Vitek says workers are trying to find a way to prevent ice buildup from occurring again in the future. The shutdown has not had any effect on employment at the site, which provides 12 permanent jobs. No effect on labor costs while shut down... and said like a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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