Harnessing the wind can sometimes be pretty rough on the harness, as an Oklahoma wind farm learned this week.
On Tuesday, a wind turbine in Custer County was bent double and set ablaze after a storm passed through the area, according to KWTV-DT.
When first responders reached the Traverse Wind Energy Center at around 4:30 p.m., one turbine was already on fire, according to Fox Weather.
Oklahoma wind turbine bent in half, on fire, in wild video https://t.co/f6uuzfDZKl pic.twitter.com/4pFpFFXqVL
— New York Post (@nypost) August 10, 2022
A representative for the Public Service Company of Oklahoma said the site has been secured, and no one was hurt.
Doppler radar showed extensive lighting around the wind farm at the time the turbine caught fire, but there is no official link between the storm and the fire.
The wind farm had 356 GE turbines across two counties of Oklahoma, making it one of the nation’s largest wind-generating facilities.
No other damage was reported.
Is wind energy all its supporters think it is?
Last month, a wind turbine in Texas caught fire during a lightning storm.
After lightning hit a turbine at the Foard City wind farm in North Texas, the Crowell Volunteer Fire Department responded but could do nothing, Fire Chief Perry Shaw said, according to Fox Weather.
“We’re not equipped to handle that kind of fire. Nobody in the area really is to speak of,” Shaw said.
RAW: A wind turbine in Texas caught fire after it was reportedly struck by lightning on Friday.
It created smoke rings in the air as the blades kept spinning. pic.twitter.com/uJx9bCRBNR
— DW News (@dwnews) July 23, 2022
He said that oil in the gearbox and mineral oil in the transformer led to black smoke filling the sky.
“We’ve done training with the wind farm company, and they are not safe to approach during that scenario. There weren’t any people in danger of being hurt, so we let the fire do what it is going to do,” Shaw said.
Earlier this month, a wind turbine caught fire near the English city of Hull, according to the BBC.
“We started evacuating just for safety, and then the flames started,” witness Sean Casey, who works nearby, said.
“It was quite horrendous to watch. The flames got quite intense. We were fearful that it might drop. We could see the bits dropping, all the cars have got debris on them,” he said.
