Thread: Wind turbines
View Single Post
Old 07-29-2024, 01:09 PM   #300 (permalink)
aerohead
Master EcoModder
 
aerohead's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Sanger,Texas,U.S.A.
Posts: 16,267
Thanks: 24,392
Thanked 7,360 Times in 4,760 Posts
' why? '

Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
If fiberglass sinks then why does it wash up on beachs after a blade shatters?
Not talking about boats in freshwater, this is wind turbines in the seas.
I can't answer your specific question.
North of me, on the West side of I-35, just South of HWY-82, in Gainesville, Texas, is a holding facility for wind turbine blades.
I've walked the facility, and have 'gotten inside' the individual blades. They're hollow for awhile, near the blade 'root.'
The wall section is enormously thick fiberglass reinforced epoxy. They weigh tons, and I don't know how they could possibly be lighter than the sea water they would displace, if placed in the ocean.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A GOOGLE search brought up a G.E. Vernova-built Haliade-X wind turbine, in the Vineyard Wind 1, offshore farm, of which, one of its 107-meter blades broke off, 20-meters from it's root, with small fragments washing up on Martha's Vineyard. I suppose that the 'large' pieces sank.
The material on the beach was described as green or white 'foamboard'. Some photos do show traces of fiberglass bonded to some of the foam debris, so it appears that 'unadulterated' fiberglass is not buoyant in sea water.
__________________
Photobucket album: http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj622/aerohead2/

Last edited by aerohead; 07-29-2024 at 01:11 PM.. Reason: typo
  Reply With Quote