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A FLAMING WIND turbine blade almost sparked a forest fire in Cork after it was thrown several metres from the machine.
The cause of the fire the wind farm in Cork is currently under investigation.
A flaming 28-metre-long blade from one of the turbines flew as far as 100 metres away from the machine and landed close to nearby gorse and forestry.
The turbine, a Gamesa G58, is a common model in operation across the world, but industry experts say it has ‘a strong safety record’.
The incident occurred at the Cappaboy Beg Wind Farm in Co Cork on 19 June.
A spokesperson for Bantry Fire Station told TheJournal.ie their main aim was to contain this fire, to ensure it didn’t spread to forest and gorse. The turbine was completely destroyed.
They said it took ‘a couple of hours’ to bring the blaze under control due to dry conditions caused by a spell of good weather.
Similar incidents, known as “blade throws”, can often occur during very high wind speeds.
However, this incident, first reported by the Cork News (P10), occurred in relatively calm conditions but during one of the hottest spells so far this year. A peak of 280MWs of electrify was produced on the day of the incident.
Prolific
A source close to manufacturer Gamesa told this website that they are one of the most prolific machines with a ‘great reliability record’, and that there is little suspicion that it was a technical failure.
It is understood an investigation is currently under-way.
The source explained that turbines are complicated industrial equipment containing a large amount of electronics.
“Rare combination”
“You can have a spark and an oily rag, some rare combination like that”, he said, “It was a hot day with little wind and so a lot of dust could have accumulated.”
He added that it is unlikely that blades on these common turbines would be thrown a large distance during a fire.
“They’re made of plastic, and will simply melt,” he said.
“The turbines themselves are build on hardstands consisting of rocks. Any plastic, or other material, that falls down is unlikely to spread.”
Late last year, a Gamesa turbine at a separate farm close to Killybegs was the subject of an investigation after a blade tip snapped off, reNews reports.
However, this incident occurred during high winds.
An owner of the wind farm and the Irish Wind Energy Association both declined to comment on last month’s incident
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I wouldnt even bother watching it if it was released early. Unless you like watching things in 360p with time stamps and watermarks all over the shop.
@Euron snatch a bitch: Yeah, I wait until the day after it’s aired to download it!
@meatyslaps: exactly.
@Euron snatch a bitch: I’d watch an early release simply because there is always some langer that would drop a spoiler, but I’d still watch it again when a decent official airing is available
@Euron snatch a bitch: well there not R5 promotional copies is the watermarks you speak of wouldn’t be there. They are coming directly from HBO. I for one would be watching. Loyal to HBO my arse
@Euron snatch a bitch: Well they are obviously not R5 promotional copies so they wouldn’t have watermark or be reduced in quality as they are coming directly from HBO. Loyalty to HBO I for one am not
@Ger Murphy:
It doesnt say it has full episodes of Game of Thrones only scripts. Full series could be some other stuff. I wouldnt waste my time looking at scripts
@Stephen Coveney: True. I was talking about other series. I just ment the copy of thrones like episode 4 released from star India was obviously a promotional copy
Send the kjng of the north after them!!!
@THE BIG LAD: in the North, dammit people!
@THE BIG LAD: Love it lol. John snow will tame their ass
@THE BIG LAD: I’ll get right on it
Little Fingers is behind it.
First world problems!
@Mary Lyons: you’re using that wrong..
@Mary Lyons: We are in the first world.
@Mary Lyons:
Whether it’s in the First or the Third world, it’s still wrong
@Neal Ireland Hello.: no were not neal. The term is coined from the cold war. 1st world is countries aligned with the usa. 2nd world is countries aligned with the ussr and third world which didnt aligned with either
@Michael Collins: did we not align to the US when we allowed refuelling in Shannon. Did we not align to the UK when we took their money throughout the years of austerity?
@Tweety McTweeter: but who cares?. Seems like you do!
@Colin Reilly: why?
@Barry O’Brien: no Barry we let anyone refuel here , it’s just the Iraqis, or Afghans never asked could they.
who gives a bollix? It’s a story about hbo ffs
Who’s not going to watch it again on hd TVs anyway even if they watched a leaked episode online. HBO have nothing to fear here.
@SteveW: whose going to watch a tv show twice in a matter of days or weeks.
Hbo have a lot to fear
@Michael Hayden: I dunno, I watched the leaked episode online on Sat, then watched it again on Monday when it actually aired cos the quality was shite.
@Dan Morgan: I watched it twice too for that reason.
@Dan Morgan: I just watched it twice because why not like
I would love to be in position to open account at HBO or any other production online and pay let’s say 0.5 euro per each episode I watch … in online stream or for download.
with lower resolution …. so who want to watch this way.. ok…
and who wants to watch in high resolution with their paid network TV … that’s ok too .
Watched the latest episode on Saturday, decent copy, have to say the producers/directors have done a fantastic job in building up to the climax, really gripping stuff, they’ve done great justice to the final season.
As unconventional as it may sound I think torrent sites should get behind HBO and ban any pre air torrents
@ED: yeah because torrent sites have such a strong moral compass
I didn’t want to watch it anyway
@Paul Friday Shannon: I think most that like the show will ignore the hackers postings. Hope HBO give these lads the 2 fingers
I’m loving 2017
Pfft let it leak, be shite quality
Only thing is those stupid fecking Clickbait Sites and YouTube Channels will watch and give away spoilers in headlines or on Thumbnails of videos. Apparently that happened on the weekend with spoilers in title of some YouTube channels appearing in the Suggested Videos if you’d watched a GoT video previously
have your say