Page 52 - North American Clean Energy May June 2015

wind power

Wind Turbine Fire

Protection

Effective ire detection

and suppression

methods

by Scott Starr

becoming ever more invested
WITH THE NORTH AMERICAN RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY
in wind-generated power, the number of wind farms and the costs involved in constructing
them is increasing exponentially. he global wind power market is estimated to be worth
$60 billion annually, with the United States being the world leader in terms of installed
capacity.

As a form of renewable energy that lessens North America’s historical reliance on fossil
fuels and reduces carbon emissions drastically each year, the technology used to generate
wind power is indispensable. However, as with any technology, there are safety issues
that need to be addressed. Turbine manufacturers and wind farm operators, as well as the

general public, are becoming increasingly aware of the issues speciically related to ire
safety.

The inherent dangers in a wind turbine

Mechanical failure or electrical malfunction account for a signiicant percentage of ires in A report published last year for the International Association of Fire Safety Science
a wind turbine. Sparks can be fueled by hydraulic luid and lubricants in the nacelle, which tried to quantify the number of wind turbine ires and the impact they had on the local
itself is constructed from highly lammable resin and iberglass. Internal insulation in the environment. In the UK, where the report was published, the indings were published in
nacelle, which can become contaminated by oil deposits, adds to the fuel load. Lightning major newspapers, attracting readers with attention-grabbing headlines such as ‘Wind

strikes also pose a risk because turbine structures, sometimes exceeding heights of 320 Turbine Fires Ten Times More Common han hought’ and ‘Wind Turbine Fires Are
feet, tend to be located in exposed areas and at high altitudes.
Hidden Peril.’
he industry reaction to this report,
rightly or wrongly, was to publicly

question the validity of the data. Whether
the data is correct or not, there is still
I AM REDEFINING
evidence that wind turbine ires pose

risks and the industry should be actively
addressing them by investing in ire
THE DATA LOGGER FOR YOU
protection technologies.

Reducing the risk
A number of ways to redesign turbines
in order to reduce the ire load inside
the nacelle were suggested. Some

options include, avoiding the use of
Advanced features? The easiest-to-use combustible insulating materials as well
data logger on the market? With the new as hydraulic and lubricant oils, installing
lightning protection systems, and using
SymphoniePRO data logger, you don't have
to choose. Learn how input from customers radiant barriers as protection from
around the world and decades of experience any combustible materials. It was also
suggested that any maintenance and
guided Ashleigh and our development team repair activities involving “hot-work”
to deliver the functionality you need in an
extraordinarily user-friendly package.
inside the nacelle should be avoided,
condition monitoring systems (CMS)
rnrgsystems.com/SymphoniePRO
should be implemented and regular
maintenance checks should be scheduled

and completed.
However, for most wind farm operators,
these costly and time-consuming
Ashleigh McCrory
modiications are daunting, considering
RNRG Software Engineer
a major objective in maintaining remote
Vermont USA
wind farms is reducing the time and

52 nacleanenergy.com
MAY/JUNE 2015