Oil spilled when turbine crashed down near Paxton

News Gazette ^ | 2/23/23 | Dave Hinton

[CFW]

PAXTON [Illinois] — When a wind turbine collapsed last Thursday east of Paxton, a substantial amount of oil spilled from the turbine hub into the ground.

Ford County Emergency Management Agency Coordinator Terry Whitebird said Austin, Texas-based RWE Renewables, which operates the Prairie Trail Wind Farm, where the turbine collapsed, filed a report with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency about the spillage, and he received a copy of the report.

Whitebird has been on site and said a crew is ready to begin dismantling the turbine but has to wait until the area dries out from Wednesday’s rains.

[CFW]

The chemical spill from the train derailment in Ohio is nothing to worry about. Here we have an oil spill (it happened a week ago), so the EPA needs to get right on it!

[Republican Wildcat]

A wind turbine caused an oil spill.

[crusty old prospector]

Gee, I bet it was at least ten barrels. A new Superfund site.

[lgjhn23]

So how much oil was spilled onto the ground by this debacle?

[butlerweave]

It appears wind turbines are very leaky ,LOL

[fretzer]

80 gallons in the gearbox, at least for this citation. It would be nice to have a chart of gearbox size/lubrication requirements/energy output/birds killed per KWH but that’s asking a lot I guess:

https://www.windsystemsmag.com/the-evolution-of-the-gearbox-oil-change/

[alloysteel]

The day shall come, in the distant future, when the last of the ghostly sentinels that once marched across the horizon, a monument to the failed effort to extract “free” energy from the wind, shall be toppled and the land again reclaimed. Most of them shall be abandoned within a couple of decades, as the economics shall never there to make this scheme self-sustaining, and the subsidies must dry up, as there will be no more money to pour down that black hole.

Nobody remembers lightning rods on houses and many rural structures, which were supposed to ward off lightning strikes, and therefore prevent fires from that source. They never worked anyway.

Technology moves on, and the various wind power and solar power arrays will become a blight on the landscape, until they are cleared away.

[beethovenfan]

My thoughts exactly. I can’t stand those ugly bird-killing monstrosities.

[ridesthemiles]

YOU cannot make this stuff up !!!!!!

[EVO X]

I live in the area. Here is my speculation. I am guessing the fail was do to a combination of events. The area has high water tables in various areas and wasn’t considered when the windmill was installed.