Wind Turbine Oil Leaks

OVERKILL said:
Here is Ontario:
View attachment 178427

Now, interestingly, this is some historical performance from Nova Scotia (one of the windiest places in Canada, right on the Atlantic east coast):
View attachment 178428

Very harsh salt environment (just like the PEI project I referenced earlier).
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Does that graph of wind turbine availability in Nova Scotia mean that they're getting more downtime as the turbines age?
 
I can help but wonder if a little bit of thought and reasoning of them being in the ocean is if they leak and/or break most people won't ever see it. Yea I know more wind, no buildings, etc. is the reason but I can't help but wonder. I see them as another modern day very inefficient, costly mistake. We're better off with nuclear power for this big "green" push to all electric, jmo.
 
Exhaustgases said:
I don't think highly loaded gearing would fare well with rapeseed oil, it would be more like oil used in differentials and heavy truck transmissions.
Click to expand...

It would be interesting to know what types of oils and the quantities that are involved in these larger wind turbines. I couldn't imagine carrying it up their ladder systems a bucket at a time and bringing soaked pig mats, and waste oil products down. I wonder if the large units have an internal hoist/lift of some sort. I can't imagine the cost of consumables being craned up to that height or lowered from above by helicopter?

Operating and maintaining cryo air sep and hydro-chem plants for a living as I do. I know what it takes to add oil, change oil and clean up spills on the compressors and hydraulic systems we have. Some sumps are in the 1000gal or more range. Most of our equipment has a scupper drainage systems built around it that drains spilled oil into a central oily water collection tank.

I know some of our plants built onsite at customer locations use food grade lubricating oils. As you mentioned though, it's application specific.
 
"Mobil SHC™ Gear 320 WT has received a second ‘design evaluation’ certification by DNV-GL, one of the world’s leading certification bodies for renewable energy projects. The certification is in recognition of the lubricant’s in-service performance, demonstrating that it does not contribute to the oil-related effects of white etching cracks (WEC). With 60 per cent of wind turbine gearbox failures attributed to WEC, it is a serious issue for wind turbine operators that can result in costly maintenance and lost productivity."

Since this concerns high bearing loads, does this mean the oil film is not holding up? Or is this just a different form of metal fatigue due to random "overstress" on the bearings?

 
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demarpaint said:
I can help but wonder if a little bit of thought and reasoning of them being in the ocean is if they leak and/or break most people won't ever see it. Yea I know more wind, no buildings, etc. is the reason but I can't help but wonder. I see them as another modern day very inefficient, costly mistake. We're better off with nuclear power for this big "green" push to all electric, jmo.
Click to expand...
The mentally deficient environmentalists who support wind over nuclear haven't bothered looking at total CO2 production, land use resource or resources used for wind vs nuclear and are just using feelings mainly fear to make their decisions.
 
JTK said:
It would be interesting to know what types of oils and the quantities that are involved in these larger wind turbines. I couldn't imagine carrying it up their ladder systems a bucket at a time and bringing soaked pig mats, and waste oil products down. I wonder if the large units have an internal hoist/lift of some sort. I can't imagine the cost of consumables being craned up to that height or lowered from above by helicopter?

Operating and maintaining cryo air sep and hydro-chem plants for a living as I do. I know what it takes to add oil, change oil and clean up spills on the compressors and hydraulic systems we have. Some sumps are in the 1000gal or more range. Most of our equipment has a scupper drainage systems built around it that drains spilled oil into a central oily water collection tank.

I know some of our plants built onsite at customer locations use food grade lubricating oils. As you mentioned though, it's application specific.
Click to expand...
Easy for a 2mw wind turbine expect about 800 gallons of gear and hydraulic oil and about 1,200 to 1,300 gallons for the pad mounted transformer.
It's not like I went to school to work on these things lol.
 
oil pan 4 said:
The mentally deficient environmentalists who support wind over nuclear haven't bothered looking at total CO2 production, land use resource or resources used for wind vs nuclear and are just using feelings mainly fear to make their decisions.
Click to expand...
I agree, and there are plenty of them.
 
oil pan 4 said:
Easy for a 2mw wind turbine expect about 800 gallons of gear and hydraulic oil and about 1,200 to 1,300 gallons for the pad mounted transformer.
It's not like I went to school to work on these things lol.
Click to expand...

Do tell!! What's the process involved in changing ~800 gal that's ~200ft off the ground perched on a pole of sorts. How are spills dealt with?
 
oil pan 4 said:
Hel no. Biodegradable lubes suck.
They tend to have poor cold performance, high varnish, low resistance to oxidation and encourage corrosion as by nature they are acidic. Precisely the last thing you want in a gear box that will cost a million dollars to replace.
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It's coming.....


www.mdpi.com

Environmental and Economic Constraints on the Use of Lubricant Oils for Wind and Hydropower Generation: The Case of NATURGY

Lubricant oil is an essential element in wind and hydropower generation. We present a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of the lubricant oils (mineral, synthetic and biodegradable) used in hydropower and wind power generation. The results are given in terms of energy used, associated emissions and...
www.mdpi.com www.mdpi.com
 
JTK said:
Do tell!! What's the process involved in changing ~800 gal that's ~200ft off the ground perched on a pole of sorts. How are spills dealt with?
Click to expand...
I suspect it's something like this:
1694966743383.png


Helicopter Support for the Wind Industry – Fair Lifts Helicopter Services

Also looks like the onshore ones have built-in cranes:
1694966894783.jpg
 
JTK said:
Do tell!! What's the process involved in changing ~800 gal that's ~200ft off the ground perched on a pole of sorts. How are spills dealt with?
Click to expand...
The power company or if it's a large wind company the high voltage guys take care of the transformer. Transformer oil is all about dielectric strength, filtering and drying usually refreshes the oil to where it doesn't need to be changed.
For the wind turbines it's all about testing, when the oil comes back not so good, usually after at least 2 years of operation the oil gets changed, hydraulic fluid is good up to 5 years of I remember correctly.
There should be lines that run between the to and base of the tower. Lock down the nacelle rotation hook up temporary lines to the runners and have a service truck at the bottom.
If not you do it the hard way run flex lines from a truck all the way up to the nacelle.
 
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4WD said:
Those pictures just make me cringe - is it that much better being in the water versus near the coast ?
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I think we are going to find out it isn't. I suspect we will see a lot more premature failure and maintenance cost with offshore wind than we do with onshore wind, and coastal onshore offers near-offshore performance at less than half the cost per unit.

They are still susceptible to the same issues (see the Nova Scotia and PEI examples) but are easier to maintain.
 
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