4 ms·
Can’t wait for California’s yearly fire season to take out a chunk of our generation capacity too.
by Lammy 4y ago
Can’t wait for California’s yearly fire season to take out a chunk of our generation capacity too.
- mattlondon 4y agoHow would a steel or concrete wind turbine fare if it was in the middle of a forest fire? I don't know but I would imagine that they would be fairly damaged or weakened as a result. For what it is worth though, they are building low/mid-rise buildings out of wood now and supposedly they can be better at handling fires than steel (since steel will fail catastrophically at a certain temp but wood chars as it burns, insulating the unburnt parts which retain structural strength for longer)
- toast0 4y agoIf a wind turbine is in the middle of a forest fire, something seriously wrong happened with site planning. A brush fire could happen though. Not sure how hot those get, especially if you regularly clear around the base of the turbines.
- aliswe 4y agoCan you elaborate?
- adgjlsfhk1 4y agotrees block wind. you normally put turbines in big fields or in top of mountains.
- hannob 4y agoThat hasn't been true for a while. Wind turbine towers are large enough these days that they can absolutely be built in a forest, and this is often happening. It's also crucial, because you simply need that space if you want to build wind energy everywhere - which obviously includes forest-rich areas.
- im3w1l 4y agoWouldn't a major difference be that a burning building spreads the fire, while a melting building does not? One thing I noticed while fiddling around in the fireplace is that if you have two logs neither of which burns very well - everytime you try to light one it goes out soon after - if you put them close together, they can support and warm each other enough to sustain an intense burn.
- adamlett 4y agoFrom what I’ve read, laminated timber is quite resistant to fire. In a fire, a layer of charcoal is generated on the outside which insulates the structural core, and it’s therefore more likely than reinforced concrete to maintain structural integrity.