I was on my way to the mountains yesterday morning with my father, when we spotted something really cool. It was a mile long train of giant fan blades. Not sure which way they were going, but they sat there all day. We took photos at around 9 am. It was still there after 3 pm. For all I know it's still there. They may have held it there to wait for a wind storm to pass through either north or south of us. The things were huge! I expect a wind storm would be a severe tipping problem for those cars. I will upload some more shots in a bit. For all I know it's still sitting there just south of 6th ave.
I remember seeing one similar a little bit ago (two months?) down by Fountain. Of course on a day when I'd forgot the camera....An impressive sight.
You may be correct about wind issues. True, or not, I have heard these items are a bit fragile. Any damage ruins them.
If railfanning was a sport, and forgetting your camera was a penalty, it might be a one game suspension!
Those things are made to catch the wind and they're made light so there's little weight going round and round. So a bit too much wind and it's tipping time...
Saw it this morning stopped in Springs when I was on the way to the fair. It was still there as of an hour ago. Jason
The blades are made in Windsor and they are a lot stronger than you think! They survived the tornado in Windsor just fine. After being built, they sit outside till they get a trainload
What happens if there is any damage? Can they be safely repaired? Just thinking about a recent derailment, where six Boeing fuselages were all lost.
They're quite strong in the long axis (centrifugal forces and all that) but I don't know if they can survive a derailment with a flat car landing on top of them! Aircraft fuselages are strong too, but if they're stressed the wrong way (as in a plane crash or derailment - which is a zero-altitude plane crash...) they break.
That's what I mean. Getting banged around some, are they at all repairable? Not as a rail car landing upon them, but such as if the car went on the ground and bounced around very roughly. Can they withstand that kind of impact?
Major concerns would be weaknesses caused during repairs leading to failure with high centrifugal forces. Also out of balance conditions between blades if materials had to be added during repairs.
This is what I am thinking. That with even minor damage, they'd be unusable. So that was one reason this train was sitting, as weather might jostle those cars hard enough to cause problems. Big $$$ lost.
I'm amazed as to the number of wind farms operating around the country, and how many generators are in each farm. As of this past July, wind farms are generating almost 5% of all power on the national grid. That amount is forecast to be more than 20% in just 15 years, by 2030. That may not sound like much until you consider that there are about 20,000 generators in 7,000 power plants nationwide. OK, so I'm a Troglodyte, but when I went to college (Columbia University, NY), 50% of its power (all dormitories) was generated by double-acting steam engines turning 120VDC Edison generators. Every dormitory room had signs saying "Do NOT use for AC appliances, including electric razors".
It will also be very interesting to learn what the real costs are for this method. Perhaps by that year we will better know actual unit life span, maintenance costs, and have retired some initial expenses.