Climate Conversation Group

Short circuits, friction or lightning strikes can cause wind turbines to go up in flames — like this one in 2004. Fire fighters can often only stand around and watch, their ladders too short to do anything about it.

This Suzlon turbine in Bureau County, Illinois, lost a blade one morning in October 2008 in an incident thought to be connected with a series of failures. The blade, 43 metres long and up to 4.5 metres wide, was found about 50 metres away in an adjacent cornfield. Nobody was hurt.

A catastrophic windmill failure in Germany, with
total fire destruction and loss of blades. Large quantities
of oil can be seen spilling down the tower.
This is a “carbon-free” energy source?