The 100-metre tall turbine at Ardrossan Wind Farm in North Ayrshire (Scotland) was destroyed after it burst into flames in gales. The incident happened after what was described by weather experts as a “weather bomb” hit Scotland in Britain's fiercest storm since 2007. The Met Office issued its only red warning this year as hurricane-force winds reaching 130mph hit Scotland and Northern England.
Wind turbines automatically disconnect in extreme wind conditions, but the gales experienced in North Ayrshire were exceptional, and led to the catastrophic failure of the turbine. Charles Anglin, of RenewableUK, the UK’s wind and marine renewables industries association, was keen to play down the importance of this incident, which the anti-wind lobby quickly added to the list of reasons for not installing more wind energy capacity in the UK.
Anglin said that wind turbines were often exposed to "some pretty tough conditions" without any glitches, and stressed that: "There's some pretty freak weather going on and any piece of large power generating equipment can be subject to freak accidents or mechanical faults.
"But there's an excellent health and safety record, and it was only a small fire in a field that was put out before the fire brigade got there, and no one was hurt. In stressful situations any power equipment may develop faults, and that's true of gas, nuclear, oil, and is also true of wind."
Flaws in anti-wind energy report
RenewableUK meanwhile issued a statement on Monday criticising a new report entitled "Renewable Energy: Vision or Mirage" published by the Adam Smith Institute and Scientific Alliance (ASI), which attacks the viability of renewables and wind power in particular.
The association said the report fails to recognise the hugely significant role that wind energy already plays in generating clean electricity in the UK and incorrectly states that wind "does little to reduce carbon emissions".
“The fact is that we have installed enough wind turbines to provide clean electricity to more than 3,200,000 homes in the UK, displacing more than six and a half million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year,” RenewableUK responded.
The report also concludes that "nuclear and gas are the most viable energy sources for the near future", although RenewableUK highlights that wholesale gas prices have risen by 40% over the last year. “Depending on expensive imports of gas leaves us at the mercy of market forces we cannot control. Gas prices have driven domestic bills sky high - we need alternatives,” it said, adding that: “It is impossible to build a nuclear power complex in a short time frame, and no new nuclear plant is due to go operational in the UK before 2020. And the cost of disposing of radioactive waste will always make nuclear expensive.”
Challenging the claim in the report that as renewable energy sources "produce power intermittently, they cannot replace gas, coal and nuclear", RenewableUK said that the ASI have failed to understand the role wind can play in the power mix.
“Wind turbines generate electricity 80-85% of the time, allowing us to use the power of the weather when it's available to cut the quantities of fossil fuels we need to burn to generate our electricity. Without wind cutting our gas consumption, it's difficult to see how we'll be able to afford the enormous volumes of gas that the ASI's preferred option would require. It's not wind that needs backup - gas needs a wind supplement in order to avoid consumer bills skyrocketing,” it explained.
"This report is simply another example of the same little clique of people repeating the same tired old arguments against renewable energy, regardless of the facts. Their report cannot be seen as an impartial piece of research - it was written by anti-renewables campaigners,” concludes Dr Gordon Edge, Director of Policy at RenewableUK. “Astonishingly, they seem to be suggesting that we should generate electricity by importing vast quantities of expensive fossil fuels from abroad, rather than utilising a free low carbon source - wind - which is abundant throughout the UK, onshore and offshore. We will continue to forge ahead with the successful deployment of wind energy.”
Forging ahead
Evidence of the UK’s wind industry’s strength in the face of adversity is the recently announced deal won by REpower for a total of 35 MW to supply wind turbines for Hall Farm, developed by RidgeWind, and Earls Hall Farm, developed by RENERCO.
The larger development at Hall Farm in North Humberside, will have a capacity of 24.6 MW, and consist of 12 MM82 REpower machines. The 10.25 MW wind farm at Earls Hall Farm near Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, will see REpower supply five MM92 turbines.
This is the first contract REpower has signed with German based RENERCO Renewable Energy Concepts AG. REpower has already supplied 8 MM92 turbines to RidgeWind for Bagmoor Wind Farm.
Construction at Earls Hall Farm will start in the summer of 2012 and the wind farm is expected to be complete by early autumn. Hall Farm will start in the spring with a similar completion date of autumn 2012.
“We’re delighted to have won two onshore contracts in quick succession. Our continued success is testament to the quality and reliability of our turbines, and the continued buoyancy of the onshore wind market,” commented Rick Eggleston, Managing Director of REpower UK.
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