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Wind turbine explosion drama Near Sunderland

A HUGE wind turbine went up in smoke in a massive blaze seen for miles across Wearside.

The 200ft structure at the Nissan factory, part of a £2.3million wind farm built in August, burst into flames just after 12.30pm yesterday.
The fire was so fierce all three 75-ft long fibreglass blades eventually dropped off and thick black smoke could be seen for miles around.
Almost 200 people dialled 999 to alert emergency crews as flames engulfed the turbine.
Police closed both the A1231 and the A19 for an hour-and-a-quarter amid worries that parts of the metal tower could fall on to the busy roads.
The six turbines were bought second-hand at a cost of £1.1million, having been previously used on a wind farm in Germany.
Graham Bagley, from Nissan, told the Echo in August it did not make financial sense to buy new ones and claimed the turbines were in "excellent condition".
A spokesman for Nissan denied the turbines are unsafe.
"It is the same design that has been used in wind farms all over the world and as far as we're aware nothing like this has happened before," he said.
"If there had been any concerns about the turbines we would never have purchased them.
"We're taking this very seriously and until we know what has caused this all six turbines will be shut down."
He said engineers from Vestas, the company who manufactured the devices, had been working on the affected turbine since an oil leak was detected on Thursday.
"It was the third turbine and is the nearest one to our test track," the spokesman said.
"Engineers were repairing it yesterday morning and they had restarted it when the fire started.
"As far as we are aware it was oil that caught fire and the blades then burnt through.
"They are made of fibreglass and they burnt right down to the metal shaft before falling off. Nobody was hurt.
"We have now shut down all the other turbines and engineers are carrying out checks on all of them.
"We apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused by this."
Both the main roads were reopened at 2pm.
A spokeswoman from Tyne and Wear Fire Service said: "We had seven fire engines in attendance and because of the risk of the structure falling onto the A19 police closed the road and the A1231.
"The majority of the structure eventually fell away from the road.

Blazing Turbine 'Like a Catherine Wheel'

Source: The Journal - Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Publication date: 2005-12-24
 

By Daniel Thomson
 
A wind turbine powering a North-East car plant was left a twisted knot of blackened metal last night after a huge blaze which could be seen for miles around.
 
The fire at Nissan in Washington is thought to have been caused by a mechanical fault and was witnessed by hundreds of stunned motorists on the A19 as the turbine's carbon fibre rotor blades caught fire and broke off.
 
Last night, firefighters who tackled the blaze said they had received more than 200 calls while eyewitnesses claimed the turbine had looked like "a giant flaming Catherine wheel".
 
Car manufacturers Nissan last night said a full investigation into the cause of the fire had been launched, but no-one had been hurt in the accident, which left the multi-million pound turbine a charred and smouldering wreck.
 
Washington Fire officer Tony Brown said: "The fire was 55 metres above ground level, so it was quite difficult to deal with. When we arrived the blades had already caught fire and black smoke was billowing across the sky.
There was a danger of the blades breaking off and we were concerned they could have flown off and hit a vehicle on the A19. They were 23 metres long and moving at some speed. They could not be stopped because the brake had been damaged by the fire, so we had to keep our distance and decided to close roads in the area."
 At this stage it appears to have been some sort of mechanical fault."
 
The turbine is one of six at the plant and they supply the plant with 5% of its annual electricity. The 750-acre site cost £2m to build and was switched on last month.
 
A Nissan spokesman said: "The turbine which caught fire had been suffering from an oil leak and had been undergoing repairs earlier in the day. Engineers thought they had fixed the problem, but when they tested the turbine it caught fire.
 
"No-one was hurt, but a full investigation into the cause has been launched."
 
Jason Lloyd, 18, of Queen Street, Birtley, was on the bus when he saw the turbine burst into flames.
 
He said: "There was smoke coming out of one of the blades. Then the whole thing was just missing. There were just flames coming off it, but the top wasn't there any more."
 
A Nissan employee, who did not want to be named, said: "The blades spinning around on fire looked like a flaming Catherine wheel. You couldn't take your eyes off it."

Fears Over Turbines Heighten With Blaze

Source: The Journal - Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Publication date: 2006-01-02
 
Fears over the safety of wind turbines have been raised by residents fighting plans for the region's biggest windfarm after a North mast caught fire before Christmas.
 
Objectors near the proposed Middlemoor site, north of Alnwick, said they were shocked after a blaze erupted on one of the new masts at the Nissan car plant at Washington on December 23.
 
A fault is believed to have set the 275ft-high structure on fire, destroying the mast and its three-bladed rotor.
 
Police were forced to close the nearby A1231 and A19 for over an hour-and-a-half, until the turbine had burned away, because of safety fears.
 
Middlemoor is to the west of the A1 trunk road and could contain up to 18 turbines, each of a height of over 400ft.
 
Npower renewables currently has an application lodged with the Department of Trade and Industry.
 
Last night local farmer Robert Thorp said the Nissan blaze wasn't the only recent incident that worried locals.
 
"It's the third serious incident to affect wind turbines in the North-East," he said.
 
"Exactly a year ago, all of the turbines in Hartlepool and East Durham were shut down following safety fears over their operation.
 
"In 2002, a turbine blade at Blyth collapsed, causing the harbour to be shut.
 
"The Nissan fire brings into sharp focus people's concerns over the careless siting of these risk-prone industrial structures.
 "Why are they even thinking of putting these dangerous things close to homes, roads and public rights of way?"

 The rotor on a modern turbine can weigh up to 37 tonnes, its blade tips travelling at speeds over 150mph.
 
Campbell Dunford, chief executive officer of the Renewable Energy Foundation, said: "The fire at the Nissan car plant, and the disruption to the local road system, shows that we need a much more responsible attitude to windfarm planning.
 
"It is an ill-informed and subjective affair at best in the UK. As Denmark has now concluded, if wind turbines belong anywhere, they belong well out to sea."
 
Elizabeth Mann, acting chair of the Durham branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: "Back in September, CPRE warned that there are serious weaknesses in the planning regime for onshore windfarms.
 "How many more accidents like this do we need to show us how dangerous wind turbines are?"
 
But a spokeswoman for npower renewables said: "Wind energy is one of the safest technologies ( no member of the public has ever been injured by a wind energy development or wind turbines anywhere in the UK."
 Publication date: 2006-01-02

'It was like a great flaming Catherine wheel," said a Sunderland resident just before Christmas, when flames engulfed one of the six 180-foot wind turbines recently installed at a cost of £2.3 million to provide just 5 per cent of the energy needs of the Nissan car plant. After a blaze visible for miles, the fibreglass blades crashed down into a field.

It appears that the colossal confidence trick of "safe", "cheap", "environmentally friendly" wind power is finally being exposed. Plans to erect thousands more of these inefficient and expensive contraptions are arousing informed opposition throughout Britain.

Meanwhile, new figures show that Denmark, which derives 20 per cent of its power from wind - the highest percentage in Europe - not only has Europe's highest electricity bills but has also fallen short of its Kyoto and EU targets for savings on carbon emissions by a staggering 25 per cent.

And just as the falsehoods behind the "Great Wind Scam" are being exposed, David Cameron proudly announces that he plans to erect a turbine on his roof, and recruits the charming but hopelessly naive Zac Goldsmith as a key adviser on energy. Goldsmith is as ardently a booster of wind as he is an opponent of nuclear power - without which, in a few years, we face a complete breakdown of our energy supplies.

Christopher Booker. Telegraph. 1/1/06