Democratic Underground - 75 San Diego Wind Turbines Suffer "Catastrophic Damage" From, um, Wind.

Workers are inspecting and repairing 75 wind turbine blades at a wind farm some 60 miles east of San Diego after a storm a month ago caused catastrophic damage to some of them.

“We’re mobilizing equipment and spare parts to the site,” said David Barnes, chief executive of Dallas-based Bluarc Management, which operates the Kumeyaay Wind project at the Campo Indian Reservation.

The last blade from the 25 turbines came down Monday.

The blades were damaged in a winter storm Dec. 7, when wind speeds topped 70 mph. The 20-story-high turbines, visible from Interstate 8, are designed to stop spinning at winds above 50 mph.

Initial reports that lightning struck the turbines were unfounded, Barnes said.

“The turbines were actually stopped,” he said. “There were extremely high winds on the site — that contributed to the blade cracking.”

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/13/damaging-blow/">Wind farm: A damaging blow Inspections, repairs after last month's storm

I especially like the pictures of the cranes, not whooping cranes or sand hill cranes - the kind of cranes that get pureed by wind turbines - but the kind of cranes hauled around by giant dangerous fossil fuel waste belching trucks.

I would be willing to bet $1 for every one of the brazillion solar roofs that Governor Hydrogen Hummer got installed in California that nobody includes the externalites of these repair trucks in the cost of wind power.

How old was the wind farm when they had to send out huge cranes to remove all the blades?

The power project opened in 2005. When the wind is blowing, it produces 50 megawatts, enough power for 32,500 homes.

That would be 32,500 homes when the turbines aren't laying on the ground being inspected for cracks, and, um, when the wind isn't blowing, or apparently when it is blowing.

Not to worry. The Wind Association has it covered:

Taking all the blades off all the turbines on a single wind farm is unusual, said John Dunlop, an engineer with the American Wind Energy Association.

75 San Diego Wind Turbines Suffer "Catastrophic Damage" From, um, Wind. [View All]