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[Video] Windmill Destruction watch!

liveleak.com — A run away windmil collapses during a storm in Denmark

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  • ShootTheCore, on 02/24/2008, -3/+417That was so much cooler than what I expected (A windmill falling over basically)
    • OffPiste, on 02/24/2008, -58/+8More reasons not to support wind power. Green my ass. These things are far too dangerous.
      • hoogie, on 02/24/2008, -2/+35Let's use the much safer options of coal and oil, right?
        Wait... *remembers coal mine cave-ins, oil spills and gas explosions*
        • Namco, on 02/24/2008, -7/+3*WOOSH*
        • CanadaMan87, on 02/24/2008, -2/+3I see your woosh, and raise you a woosh for everyone who dugg down OffPiste and dugg up hoogie.
    • AriaGloris, on 02/24/2008, -6/+3More like why was the damn think not locked like it was supposed to be... software fault or fire the technician.
      • chronusmcgee, on 02/24/2008, -0/+11Most large scale wind turbines have a mechanical governor in addition to the software/electric brake primary. The mechanical governer should have engaged when the turbine went over speed. It looks like the governor either had a snapped shaft or the brake failed completely.
      • Hoogie7Dowser, on 02/24/2008, -1/+10Why don't they hook up more generator gears to it? That's a lot of potential wind energy that could've been converted to sweet hot electric juice.
        • superal1394, on 02/24/2008, -5/+2It could over power the grid, cause brownouts should it suddenly stop, etc. etc. etc.
        • aywwts4, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4Also, the amount of energy required to build the generators required to harness wind speeds that are seldom seen which would go unused a majority of the time would probably be a net energy loss.
        • Koookie, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2My guess is that the wires of the coils inside the generator would heat up too much. They are designed to work up to a certain amount of current. The wires heat up with the power P=I² · R. Double the current, and you have four times faster heat buildup.

          I think that if they put in thicker wires (=less resistance, R), the generator would have a smaller efficiency.
          • gyrfalcon, on 02/25/2008, -1/+1Please take your high school electronic knowledge, shut up, and sit back down in your seat.
        • Codeman917, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!
        • rspeed, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1It's unlikely that the cost of the more complicated gearbox wouldn't be recovered by the rare occurrence of that type of wind. Plus there's the potential issue with the strain on the tower in that type of wind. If the blades hadn't failed the tower may have. Feathering the blades is a much better idea overall.
    • ramises, on 02/24/2008, -1/+38A Windmill crushes grain. This is a Wind Turbine.
      But yeah, really cool video...
      • screensnot, on 02/24/2008, -0/+5Isn't a wind turbine just a type of windmill?

        Also, windmills do other things besides crushing grain. Pumping water, for example.
        • SiliconRain, on 02/27/2008, -0/+1I think that would be a wind-powered water pump.

          windMILL - the clue is in the name,
    • Jozer99, on 02/24/2008, -20/+5Further proof that windmills are an unsafe and non-environmentally sound power source! Ban them forever! L
    • Micktion, on 02/24/2008, -24/+2Glad you thought it was "cool" that video cost about $2.5 million USD to make, which is the cost of replacing that windmill.

      I think it's actually a little sad as it is a graphic illustration of why wind power doesn't work. It's has proven itself to be a clear loser in terms of it's cost to power output ratio. Germany is the leading produces the most amount wind power in the world...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#Utilizatio ...

      ...yet wind power only accounts for 15% of the power needs, an is far more expensive than the non-green alternatives such as coal and nuclear. There has to be a better way.
    • quomen, on 02/24/2008, -14/+1Buried. Why do these faces of death videos always make it to the front page?
    • 11b1p, on 02/24/2008, -0/+7The ones we have in Atlantic City have a feature where they can be locked down and the blades turned in a storm so that can't happen. this must have been an earlier version :(
      • Grummond, on 02/24/2008, -0/+7I think they all do, the brakes on this one were faulty. They were fixing them, but there was a storm approaching and they couldn't fix the brakes in time.
    • krizzle, on 02/24/2008, -4/+1If only we could harness this powerful force....we could power the entire world!! Perhaps some sort of mill, able to convert the energy of the wind into electric power!

      Or we could build a couple hydroelectric power plants on a creek.
    • SiliconRain, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4It's not a windmill.

      It's a wind turbine.
    • spargett, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2That looked like a case of windmill suicide.
  • HeDiggMe, on 02/24/2008, -6/+70Why did I get a "mature audiences" warning for that?!
    • ghee, on 02/24/2008, -2/+187Because a windmill just died. RIP windmill.
    • Ajenthavoc, on 02/24/2008, -1/+38Very gory video. Viewer discretion is advised.
    • KillaJazzBass, on 02/24/2008, -1/+32Because its sscccccarrrryyyy!
    • CloseYetFar, on 02/24/2008, -0/+55There may be other windmills watching on LiveLeak.
    • mrm3x1can, on 02/24/2008, -15/+5dam! ive never laughed at every single reply made to a comment!
    • Scaryclouds, on 02/24/2008, -3/+10Because is shows the windmills naught parts
    • Cockjuice, on 02/24/2008, -1/+11Why wasn't this titled NSFW? My boss walked in right as it died...
    • stoikiometry, on 02/24/2008, -1/+9Because you're from digg.
    • palpacino, on 02/24/2008, -2/+6Its a compliment. The subtly of aging.
  • rasman32, on 02/24/2008, -9/+106Holy cow! that was incredible! Look at the power, and the size of that thing! Excellent submission!
    • anagoge, on 02/24/2008, -3/+112Must...resist...

      THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID
    • Archaic1, on 02/24/2008, -2/+41ExCeLlEnT sUbMiSsIoN!!!! A+++++++ Would Buy Again!!!!
      • xptoast, on 02/24/2008, -1/+8What no negative feedback?
      • Vindexus, on 02/24/2008, -0/+14Instead of office chair package contained bob cat.

        Would not buy again.
    • diggimator, on 02/24/2008, -0/+6"It's okay, it happens to all wind turbines."
    • ianthepetrock, on 02/24/2008, -0/+6Holy Cow! The power, the use of adjectives! Excellent comment, my good sir!
  • obliviousfool, on 02/24/2008, -1/+217I wonder if this was a test or an accident. Wind turbines have clutches inside of them that generally prevent this sort of thing from happening.
    • Awspire, on 02/24/2008, -3/+149According to the title, it was a "run away", so I'm assuming the breaks failed during high winds, hence why it was being video taped. They must of known something catastrophic was about to happen.
      • Peko, on 02/24/2008, -27/+3I'm not sure. That audio reeks of foley to me. Additionally, I would expect waaay more close-to-mic wind nose.
        • unreg, on 02/24/2008, -0/+74Yeah, there's a strong market going for faked windmill destruction videos.

          Doof
        • ABadPerson, on 02/24/2008, -0/+7About the wind noise, they first filmed from inside a vehicle hence it is not as noisey, and when they went out to inspect the wreck you can hear the wind noise. (This is not hard to reason out Peko, so I hope this answers your doubts.)
      • jakobahman, on 02/24/2008, -1/+11Since there is a storm over here right now, and looking at the date the video was added, it seems like it wasn't a test.
    • Redzin, on 02/24/2008, -2/+163It was an accident, it happened in Denmark (which is where I live) on Februrary 22. Basicly we had a "storm" and the security thing that was supposed to stop the mill failed, so it just kept accelerating. It was in the news and *****. ;)

      The movie clip is in realtime btw, it really did go that fast :P
      • unreg, on 02/24/2008, -39/+8You mean every time I watch the video I'm seeing another windmill blow up?
        • overtoke, on 02/24/2008, -0/+24It depends on your definition of reality.
      • ojuice, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3Looks like bad luck! Most commercial turbines have three independent breaking/stalling systems. That thing just splits in half on its way up, looks like a wicked blade failure.
      • mif86, on 02/24/2008, -3/+3Actually it looks more like the first blade gets broken off by the force of the wind acting against an opposite force from the brakes, and then the other blades rip off and the whole rig fails because of the huge imbalance. Doesn't look like the first blade rips off because of the centripetal forces caused by the speed.
      • spiri, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1Exactly it was very real! Luckily no one was hurt, since the police had block of the area around the wind mill.
    • themastersb, on 02/24/2008, -0/+64I wonder how much energy it made there.
      • aussieNickuss, on 02/24/2008, -1/+21Spinning that fast, the propellers were probably disengaged from the generator.
        • grgt1994, on 02/24/2008, -13/+8I only saw one propeller (with multiple blades).
          • aussieNickuss, on 02/24/2008, -1/+10Doh....should be "the propeller was....".
      • Flarble, on 02/24/2008, -5/+861.21 gigawatts!!!!!
        • Jozer99, on 02/24/2008, -16/+4Its spelled jiga-watts.
          • GawtMilk, on 02/24/2008, -0/+5It's spelled Gigawatts. Much like it's spelled Gigabytes. The correct phonetic pronunciation of Gigabytes is "Jiggabytes" but that just sounds lame, so no one says it. "Jiggawatts" was popularized through the film, hence people say it.
      • falstaff, on 02/24/2008, -3/+41"I need more power!" "She can't take much more of this, captain!"
      • Fracture98, on 02/24/2008, -0/+30Not as much as it'll take to rebuild it...
      • wardrox, on 02/24/2008, -0/+68At that speed? Well over 9000.
      • dienaked, on 02/24/2008, -0/+50None, it just converted a bunch.
        • AMD64MM, on 02/24/2008, -3/+14I see what you did there.
          • tacojohn48, on 02/24/2008, -1/+19I didn't see what he did there until I saw your "I see what you did there"
    • ferrariman60, on 02/24/2008, -1/+6Yeah, that was my thought too, I would certainly imagine they'd have a clutch or be able to adjust the pitch on the blades to feather the thing in severe winds. Whatever was supposed to happen apparently didn't though, heh.
    • diggimator, on 02/24/2008, -6/+3Soo, whenever there's a storm, wind turbines have to be turned off and zero electricity is produced in the mean time?
      • xptoast, on 02/24/2008, -0/+6No, just braked so they don't go so quickly. I'm curious why they don't just mount another backup gen to it so it can slow down and push out more power.
        • iknoritesrsly, on 02/24/2008, -2/+1prolly cause you're the first person to think of that! :D
          • xptoast, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3Was that sarcasm or truth? I truly hope I am not the first to think of that. I would be sad.
        • skew009, on 02/24/2008, -0/+2No, they actually stop it with a big 1 meter disk break and then there are big pins that slide into place to hold it. Can you imagine the heat that would be generated if they used the disk break to slow it down. At least that is how the ones I saw being built in a Siemens factory in Denmark worked.
          • Barbrady, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1brakes, not breaks
          • spyd3rweb, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1Why not use some type of dynamic braking? Or should I have not said this and headed straight to the patent office instead?
          • carpespasm, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1they slow down to a certain point, but you can only brake away so much energy before the brake would overheat and turn runaway, when it gets too close to that they're supposed to shut down a lock.
      • milliamp, on 02/24/2008, -0/+6They have regenerative braking in cars, I am know much about wind mills, but I assume the same is possible. It may just be a matter of cost though, there is less gained from using friction braking (brake pads), but they are cheaper, so if storms and very high winds are not common, a higher priced regenerative braking system may not pass the cost/benefit test.

        One point to consider though, is that since a windmill is basically a regenerative brake out of the box, slowing it down may amount to basically switching to a different gear, and while friction brakes are cheap, they are not meant to be on all the time (like for sustained high winds) because when they heat up they tend to fatigue and their effectiveness is reduced.

        Windmills are challenging because they have to be able to sustain high winds and at the same time be small/light enough so they don't create too much drag to be useful in low wind situations and not overly expensive to build.

        There have been a handful of concepts suggested to deal with this like using light weight hinged blades that bend in situations where wind is really high without getting broken, but I am not sure if they have met much success or not.

        It looks like the pole in the vid was made of fiber glass. I am not sure what the blades were, maybe carbon fiber.
    • Kontra8, on 02/24/2008, -1/+3Exactly. How often is it so windy and theres a guy standing next to a windmill with a camera in his hand recording the windmill for any other reason? I'm sure windmills are interesting but not that interesting.
      • Carlsen, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4The entire windmill park was shut down. This particular mill was the only one with faulty brakes. Vestas (The company behind it) were expecting it to fail and large crowds had gathered around to see wether it would fail or not. Thats why it was filmed.
    • Berkana, on 02/24/2008, -0/+6The problem with this kind of wind mill is that one of their safety mechanisms is to turn the turbine rotor sideways so the thing itself provides a much smaller profile for the wind, but at high spinning speeds, there's too much angular momentum in the rotors for the head to turn.

      For high winds, with turbulence, the best kind of turbine is the Savonius turbine:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEtqFvxPXVc
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9flSPAdOLk
      Since these turbines don't need to re-orient, and the angular momentum of the turbine doesn't have any influence on how it receives wind from any direction, wind doesn't do the same sort of damage it does to horizontal turbines. They also don't kill birds, and are very quiet. Large scale savonius turbines also exist:
      http://www.tmawind.com/
  • truman48, on 02/24/2008, -99/+9This is why I am for nuclear power, jk digg me down if you want.
    • levitron, on 02/24/2008, -2/+52Alright.
    • NikoKun, on 02/24/2008, -5/+28Yay Nuclear power! Yeah I'm for that too... but too many people are blindly/ignorantly against it, because of the scares of the past... -_-
      It's a lot safer now than it used to be...
      • NikoKun, on 02/24/2008, -2/+8I forgot to say,
        besides, wind is cleaner... and this sort of thing isn't a normal occurrence... lol
        • hammburglar, on 02/24/2008, -5/+1ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? theres a fusion reaction going on in my ass as we speak. oh and i agree with you about the people blindly believing nuclear power is bad. im a huge fan of the ones that mention all the pollution it creates. *GASP* WATER VAPOR!!!!!!
        • iharbinger, on 02/24/2008, -4/+5"GASP" RADIOACTIVE WASTE THAT DOES NOT DECAY FOR CENTURIES!!
          • hammburglar, on 02/24/2008, -2/+4i was addressing the people that say the smoke coming from the towers is pollution. the radioactive waste is certainly bad. but they can just bury it. see what digg can teach you about life. you dont like it. bury it.
        • viggenguy, on 02/24/2008, -0/+5a lot of people don't realize that the longer the half-life of an isotope is, the less dangerous and more stable
          it is (not necessarily chemically though).
      • xNIBx, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2And what about the waste? Should we just dump them on some poor african country? Send them to the sun? To space? Can they be processed effectively and cheaply? No. Also we would still rely on uranium. Why not just get alternative forms of energy like solar, wind, tide, thermo, etc?
        • jdonson, on 02/24/2008, -0/+2Thermo? All power cycles are thermo based -as in thermodynamics.

          Unlike solar, wind, and tidal energy, Nuclear energy can be relatively constant for a long, long time. It has an annual up time greater than 90 percent. Also, with regards to waste products, there has been some research in processing the wastes inside of a sub-reactor to accelerate the rate of decay of waste products. Unfortunately, the world market makes it much cheaper to buy the fresh stuff than to re process the waste. Current fuel rod technology in the US uses only about 33 percent of the fissile material inside the reactor, before the rods become "poisoned" with fission fragments. It's cheaper to store the material than it deal the waste products.

          Nuclear is not a perfect solution, however, in that it is wasteful for a reactor to sit idle (not generating power) as the rods continue to decay. Thus, a nuclear power plant cannot meet the load demand curve that shifts up and down daily without incurring significant financial waste.
    • coolcole93, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4K.
    • SpookyPig, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1Does it strike anyone else as interesting that someone named "Truman" would be for something nuclear?
  • depro9, on 02/24/2008, -33/+3FUD
    • beastlykings, on 02/24/2008, -0/+2fear uncertainty and doubt, no?
  • qwkredfox, on 02/24/2008, -2/+43I live in Palm Springs by all the wind mills- and we had a big storm going through the pass last night and i wondered why they shut the mills down- thank you for the explanation!!! Awesome vid.
  • harrisbradley, on 02/24/2008, -22/+27Sorry, not as cool as a barrel of gas blowing up
  • lordenlil, on 02/24/2008, -4/+36So awesome. For a second there I thought it would just take off...
    • DentThat, on 02/24/2008, -0/+9SPIN SPIN SPIN WEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
  • FukUrCouch, on 02/24/2008, -22/+2I wonder if it's possible to harness tornado's for electrical power?...
    • Andrewbot, on 02/24/2008, -1/+23Tornadoes would be too random and infrequent to build devices to harness their energy.
      • twinklyJesus, on 02/24/2008, -1/+22why did you even bother to answer that stupid question.
    • DeathMarcher, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2There's been some work along those lines, but I'm sure implementation is a ways off yet. Here's an article.
      http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/837/
    • apache2, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1Definitely possible. ...................... but Practical?
  • macweirdo42, on 02/24/2008, -22/+80Holy crap! Thanks for bringing back old nightmares - when I went to college, there was a windmill on our campus (it generated power for the science building). But man, I was always freakin' terrified of it, especially when the winds got really strong, because I was afraid of precisely what happened in the video. Oh, and it's totally irrelevant, but I went to Macalester College - hence my screenname being macweirdo42 (just wanted to clear the air, there, as people always assume I'm just an Apple fanboy - can't stand Apple products).
    • BasicShape, on 02/24/2008, -41/+2Just remember thank Apple for the better part of your Windows experience.Thx.
      • pcgeek101, on 02/24/2008, -3/+15I don't see any comparable Apple products to most of what software Microsoft provides ... Active Directory? Exchange? IIS? System Center Configuration Manager? System Center Operations Manager? Microsoft Application Virtualization? Microsoft Visual Studio 2008? Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 (includes Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows Workflow Foundation)?

        Yep, that's what I thought. Apple = fail.
        • applemachome, on 02/24/2008, -12/+2What about XCode, Cocoa, and Core Audio, Video, Animation, Image etc

        • Namco, on 02/24/2008, -0/+17What in the hell happened here? You got apple in my windmil thread!
        • Scaryclouds, on 02/24/2008, -3/+2For Microsoft Studio, Mac has Xcode. Otherwise your right on all other counts.
          Still LAMP beats the living hell out of all of that.
      • TheKorn2, on 02/24/2008, -0/+9Actually, than Xerox. (look it up; came out of PARC!)
      • macweirdo42, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4Oh, screw Windows! I only use it out of necessity - personally, my preference is to MS-DOS. I miss the old days, the days when I didn't just click on an icon to activate a program, I issued freakin' commands! Call me a sadist, but there was just something I loved about barking out orders and having the computer obey my every whim. Actually, what I really miss is back in the old days, when you could even write programs from the command prompt. There's just a certain feeling of godlike power that's lost on newer computers.
        • pcgeek101, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1You might like Windows Powershell. It's a fully interactive shell / scripting language built on Microsoft .NET. Any command you write can be scripted, and vice versa .... it's pretty sweet if you're looking for that type of shell/script integration.

          It's primarily geared towards systems administrators and engineers (such as myself), but if you enjoy messing around with command-line stuff, it's the way to go on Windows.
          • LavosPhoenix, on 02/24/2008, -2/+2Or how about not using a ***** broken OS, and just using Linux?
          • macweirdo42, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3@LavosPhoenix
            Well hell, yeah, I've considered it - but the problem is, every time I've ever tried to install Linux, I've encountered a massive hardware problem which prevents me from actually using the damn thing (usually my video card refuses to work properly - and boom, as soon as I solve that problem, I discover I can't connect to the Internet). Besides, I don't want to have to deal with game compatibility issues.
          • pcgeek101, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1But, Linux -is- a broken o/s. Your statement/question doesn't make sense.
    • pcgeek101, on 02/24/2008, -7/+7Thanks for clarifying the last part :) ++

      Even so, I would venture to say that it's safe to assume that most people with "mac" in their s/n are probably Apple whores. Good for you being the exception!
      • macweirdo42, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2Yeah... I first chose this name to chat with my friends, who all got the reference - it hadn't occurred to me how often it'd be misinterpreted outside my circle of friends. Now I just find that it occasionally causes misunderstandings in computer-related discussions on digg.
    • peterpeterpan, on 02/24/2008, -3/+6better a Macalester graduate than an apple fanboy, but not much better.
      note: i'm a Saint Olaf student, just to explain my perspective.
      • LanceUppercut, on 02/24/2008, -3/+2from my perspective i would personally interpret your screen name as someone who loves the *****
        • macweirdo42, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4Bwer? Okay, seriously, you gotta explain this one, man. Don't leave me hanging!
          • LanceUppercut, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1it was directed at penispenispan :)
      • macweirdo42, on 02/24/2008, -0/+6Damn yous guys, damn yous all to hell!!! Well, at least you're not from St. Thomas... Those cocky, preppy bastards...
      • jlharrity, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3Minnesota FTW
    • jmkiii, on 02/24/2008, -3/+15What a polite conversation we are all having.
    • vtnerd, on 02/24/2008, -5/+5Dugg for the last 4 words.
    • usemanzana, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3Haha, the olin-rice windmill wouldn't really do that much damage though, it's tiny. It's funny to see reference to Mac on Digg though.... Typed from Doty.
      • macweirdo42, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1Well it scared the crap out of me! By the way, does Doty still smell funny? Especially Doty 3 - goddamn, I swear, there were odors there my nose had never encountered before.
    • trenchfever, on 02/25/2008, -0/+1hahahah.. who cares who you are random internet person :-P
  • wildfire, on 02/24/2008, -4/+238Must have reached 88MPH...
    • KillaJazzBass, on 02/24/2008, -48/+2Hows does a comment like this generate diggs?
      • rovsky, on 02/24/2008, -0/+27its a reference to back to the future....aka awesome.
      • Hayaemsay, on 02/24/2008, -0/+20Great scott!!
      • aussieNickuss, on 02/24/2008, -0/+30The same way a comment like your generates negative diggs.
    • Peko, on 02/24/2008, -0/+92Power output: 1.21 jigawatts.
    • H1tchh1k3r, on 02/24/2008, -0/+24Great Scott!
    • aussieNickuss, on 02/24/2008, -0/+15Unfortunately it broke apart before the flux kicked in.
    • ryan83189, on 02/24/2008, -7/+2Nope. Someone sent them up the bomb.
    • Segphault1, on 02/24/2008, -10/+7Probably OVER 9000 RPM!
    • KGtheway2B, on 02/24/2008, -8/+2Aaactually, it reached 770mph (wingtips reaching speed of sound probably caused the fracture)
      • Jozer99, on 02/24/2008, -2/+8Not necessarily. The spinning will cause lots of stress BEFORE that point, as well. Look up centipital force. Note that it wasn't the wing tips that broke, but more towards the middle, as well as the tower itself. In fact, if the tower were to go first, the change in axis could have caused the blades to rip themselves apart from gyroscopic forces. This seems likely, since all 3 blades broke at once, which would be unlikely in a blade-stress induced malfunction (the top blade gets the most wind, so it would break first).
        • vtnerd, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4By pause/play really fast it looks like a single blade at the top broke initially. After that, it all gets ripped apart. Hard to say for sure, since it's pretty inaccurate to hit play and pause quickly enough but that's how things appear.
        • beastlykings, on 02/24/2008, -0/+6well...
          http://i32.tinypic.com/2uidy0o.png
        • xptoast, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3Nice catch beastly. Nice indeed. That was a sweet video. I bring nothing to this conversation but just wanted to say nice catch.
    • londubh, on 02/24/2008, -10/+1Actually that would have been 88 kilometers per hour. They use the metric system in Denmark. 88kph would 55mph in American measurements.
    • jimmick, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1*****, for a second there, I thought that was a black books reference
      "WHAT HAPPENS AT 88 DEGREES?!?!?!?!"
  • bmarc, on 02/24/2008, -5/+40must of done a crap load of generation just before it broke.
    • teh_techie, on 02/24/2008, -0/+11nope.. it would be disconnected from the grid the moment they knew it was runaway
    • rolmos, on 02/24/2008, -1/+7have
  • hydratedsquash, on 02/24/2008, -5/+22YOUR HEAD ASPLODE!
  • Y3T1, on 02/24/2008, -3/+166that video NEEDS a slow-mo
  • roseman5285, on 02/24/2008, -3/+30that blew!
  • 2point71, on 02/24/2008, -6/+30wonder how much power it was generating when it reached max.
    • DesignEx, on 02/24/2008, -0/+7I was thinking that if by 'run away' they meant that a resistance mechanism used to slow it down, and turn the force generated into electricity broke, and made it spin out of control (and therefore not generating any electricity in the process).
      • spiralspirit, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3most likely that is not the way the system works. A system using a spinning magnet is more likely and probably has much higher efficiency.
      • moonshn, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3i don't think they use a friction device to slow them, i think rather they "feather" or change the pitch of the blades.
      • Jozer99, on 02/24/2008, -0/+5They do several things. The blades pitch is changed to generate minimum torque, the propeller is disconnected from the generator, and the blade is locked down with a friction (or induction) clutch. The clutch here failed, meaning the blades could spin freely.
    • sism3477, on 02/24/2008, -7/+121.21 Jiggawatts?
    • nonstop87, on 02/24/2008, -3/+7 I heard it was generating over 9000...
    • skew009, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1None because the generators are only really efficient in a certain speed range.
  • AllLitUp, on 02/24/2008, -17/+54See, burning US currency would be a much cheaper, safer and easier form of energy generation.
    • KillaJazzBass, on 02/24/2008, -20/+8I am one of the 5 people on Digg who understand and relate to irony, I will digg you sir.
      • Bamborzled, on 02/24/2008, -0/+5That same group of 5 people, incidentally, do not know the definition of 'irony'.
    • pjsheldon, on 02/24/2008, -0/+0Renewable resources are a threat to us all!
  • xxTazxx, on 02/24/2008, -2/+109That windmill sacrificed itself to save the earth. Have some heart people.
    • rotten777, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4It has returned to the lifestream.


      Too much FFVII
  • imapluralist, on 02/24/2008, -10/+3I'd hate to live by that thing
    • imapluralist, on 02/24/2008, -2/+1I don't get why you asshats dugg me down. go ***** live by it. Just don't come crying to me when your trailer gets ripped in two.
      btw: What's got two legs and bleeds profusely?
      .....
      ....
      ...
      ..
      .
      your cat.
  • qpingu, on 02/24/2008, -0/+22"collapses" is an understatement.
    • teh_techie, on 02/24/2008, -0/+8Indeed... one of the blades hit the main shaft in the midsection, effectively CHOPPING it down!
  • diggcensors, on 02/24/2008, -8/+34Well... guess that wont work... back to coal.
  • vicgp3, on 02/24/2008, -6/+14who the hell is crazy enough to film this, and how the hell did they know it was gonna blow up?
    • kawsper, on 02/24/2008, -0/+9According to a danish news station, it was a neighbor to the windmill who thought that it was going to fast. So she set up a camera to record the windmill.
      • 11b1p, on 02/24/2008, -0/+7hopefully she set it up then drove the ***** away.
      • Grummond, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3They knew it was going to happen, they were fixing the brakes when a storm approached. They didn't have time to fix it before the storm.
  • systemghost, on 02/24/2008, -1/+15Look out, Texas!
    • Mr.Gone, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3No no no, there's a flood down in Texas, all the telephone lines are down.
  • CheeseburgerBro, on 02/24/2008, -6/+18Wind power -- when will people LEARN?
    • archer104, on 02/24/2008, -0/+11Marge: There's a man here who thinks he can help you.
      Homer: Batman?
      Marge: No, he's a scientist.
      Homer: Batman's a scientist.
      Marge: IT'S NOT BATMAN!!!
  • AlienMushroom, on 02/24/2008, -2/+9Old model? I think the new ones have speed control by adjusting the blade angles.
    • kawsper, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3According to the danish news this windmill was about 10 years old.
      • xptoast, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1It probably paid for itself by that time I would think. Yay!
    • centran, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1The blade angles is just to make it more efficient. There is a device attached to the generator called a governor that prevents it from spinning too fast. They also have brakes on them but that is used during maintenance as the governor is supposed to slow it down in a storm.
    • Anthop, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1Not quite.... Mushroom is right. In high windspeeds, wind turbines generally pitch their blades out of or into the wind to slow it down.

      Yay Danish windpower! :P: http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wtrb/powerreg.htm
  • playscape, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1they're much bigger than i thought they were
    • Spectre77, on 02/24/2008, -0/+10that's what she said... sorry
    • 80hd, on 02/24/2008, -1/+4Every so often there is this truck that transports single blades from wherever the hell windmills are made to this wind farm in Wisconsin. The space between the semi tractor itself and the wheels that are rigged onto the tip of the blade are farther apart than 6 car lengths so yes..

      These things can be built fricken big.
      • theundone, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1yeah and the central generator box thing that the blades attach to are like the size of an RV. They're crazy huge.
  • Sererena, on 02/24/2008, -0/+5Just an hour ago, I was out with a drive and stopped to look at the windmills... seeing this now is just surreal.
  • chadillak, on 02/24/2008, -3/+150if you turn it up loud enough, you can hear the windmill yelling "oh *****, oh *****, oh *****, oh *****" just before it dies.
    • playscape, on 02/24/2008, -0/+21that made me laugh.
    • devobergso, on 02/24/2008, -0/+21I turned it up as loud as possible and didn't hear anything. But due to the explosion you now owe me some new speakers...
  • ryanonfire, on 02/24/2008, -3/+5Windpower FTW!
  • eqlou, on 02/24/2008, -10/+3but will it blend? oh wait, i think it did
  • fluxboxuk, on 02/24/2008, -1/+9So the one on my roof, not such a good idea ?
  • coppyrightmind, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1MAX AIR!!!
  • oddfreakperson, on 02/24/2008, -0/+2too...much...power....
  • twinklyJesus, on 02/24/2008, -1/+13Yes, there is nothing more scary than a giant hollow fiberglass pinata assploding. That was very nearly Chernobyl or the China Syndrome! /s
  • coolcole93, on 02/24/2008, -12/+1Now THAT is ironic!
  • RPliberty, on 02/24/2008, -4/+11Must be the wind coming out of McCain's sails.
    • Rioracer916, on 02/24/2008, -2/+1Heh, I don't particularly like random political jabs in unrelated comments. But you made me laugh, and I need a laugh seeing as how I'm working overtime on a Saturday. Thanks!
      • pasher1221, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1Thanks for letting us all know you are working over time. Maybe you would not have to work over time if you got off Digg!
  • roadtripper, on 02/24/2008, -2/+51Don Quixote would be proud.
    • tas08, on 02/24/2008, -0/+11Aside from "it must have reached 88MPH" this is the best comment in the thread.
      • roadtripper, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1*blushing*
        thanks . . . i was hoping people would "get it".
  • pixelguru, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2If only we had slow-mo of that destruction.
    • centran, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1Yeah. I was trying to figure out what part failed first. Was it the generator. Did a blade just fly off or did it nick the post first? Video was too fast to determine what went first.
      • Radan, on 02/24/2008, -0/+2I tried to watch it frame by frame, and it looks like the blades first get torn off, and then one of them flies directly into the pillar and cuts it in half.
      • 80hd, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1Looks as if a single blade snapped loose, which torqued the main support and then the other blades were ruined when the drive shaft's axis changed.
    • MrDo, on 02/24/2008, -0/+3there's a bit slower clip here at 1:40 http://nyhederne.tv2.dk/politik/article.php/id-105 ...
      I don't know if the video is viewable globally
      • DKSprocket, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1For those not blessed with the powers of the danish language: they said the police had secured the area up to 400 meters away from the windmill, but they found pieces of it as far away as 700 meters.
  • Paracropolis, on 02/24/2008, -9/+3EPIC FAIL.
  • PhonicUK, on 02/24/2008, -1/+13Its power level was OVER 9000 before asploding!
  • RomanThommassen, on 02/24/2008, -10/+0Correction:

    Because of an editing error, an earlier version of an article Saturday about the growing use of wind power in Texas left unclear the amount of money that Louis Brooks is paid for having 78 wind turbines on his ranch on the outskirts of Sweetwater, Tex. It is $500 a month for each, not $500 for all of them.

    you got to be kidding me? What a douchebag. 12*78*500=468000 dollar a year? correct me if i'm wrong
    • greenlight2001, on 02/24/2008, -0/+9Wrong ***** article.
    • mrm3x1can, on 02/24/2008, -0/+0alright mr mathmatician, take it to someone who cares
  • alloyic, on 02/24/2008, -1/+4so one of the blades hit the post, right?
    • teh_techie, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1that's what it looks like took it down ultimately. If not, I think it would be still standing, bladeless.
    • 80hd, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4It looks like the blade that first snapped was up and to the left when it broke loose and then the main support simply snapped because of the off balance rotor.
  • TheDarkstarter, on 02/24/2008, -0/+11Breaking - wind destroys windmill!
  • aethelberga, on 02/24/2008, -1/+33This vid is going to be hauled out of mothballs every time someone wants to stop a windmill being erected in their area, guaranteed.
    • MajorOutage, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4The irony there is that windmills like this have engineered 'weak points' to minimize collateral damage if and when they do fail, and this video is a pretty good demonstration of it.
  • KILLSTRUCTO, on 02/24/2008, -13/+1It broke cuz it was made out of fiber glass. If it was made out of metal it wouldn't have warped and the propeller wouldn't have hit the shaft.
    • andyduncan, on 02/24/2008, -1/+9Right because metal is indestructible, and never bends. Ever. It's also stronger than fiberglass for a given weight.

      Oh. Wait. Except it's not.
    • JorgeGT, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4I'm wondering what my professor of science and engineering of materials would do after hearing that... I think I'll have nightmares tonight.
    • tehbored, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1No, metal would be stupid. Carbon fiber would probably have faired better than fiberglass, but it's expensive.
      • tomarocco, on 02/24/2008, -1/+1It would have fared better in that it would have lasted a few more seconds. It was never engineered to take the forces it did. As an anology, many realiable and safe aircraft would disintegrate in an uncontrolled dive.
        • tehbored, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2They would... disintegrate. Right... Maybe an uncontrolled dive from low orbit, but nothing short of that.
  • miscAU, on 02/24/2008, -4/+6windspeed, OVER 9000.
  • soupnrc, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1Cooooooooooooooooooool
  • dkguy55, on 02/24/2008, -1/+2It looked like one of the blades hit the post it was being held up on.
    • apache2, on 02/24/2008, -0/+1or........ it buckled under the conversion of rotational energy
  • DjViral, on 02/24/2008, -6/+2burn bush and cheney's family in front of them, and then skin then and pull out their nails and leave them hanging on the washington monument for the rest of eternity to die of torture and hunger.
    • greenlight2001, on 02/24/2008, -0/+4the anger is strong in this one.
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