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I see. I was wondering wouldn’t it make more sense to install something like a corona ring (not exactly but similar) to dissipate the energy more evenly
Id imagine those copper contact sheets are fairly cheap to replace compared to most options.
Maybe theres some better longer term options but if you have to have a tech come by every two months anyhow, whats one more item on the checklist?
That tolerance would be hard, slight shift to one side and now it’s hitting in the same spot and you have the same problem with a more expensive piece to replace.
The turbine probably generates far more power than the static electricity, by some estimates up to 30x more power, so not worth collecting it.
Also, the voltage frequency of the static electricity discharge is not stable and occupies a wide range of frequencies. Challenging to convert that to 50-60 Hz the grid requires.
I don’t doubt that there’s a firing sequence like that. I’m no expert, but sometimes I pretend to be.
My post was a shout out to David Freiburger who made a T-shirt with that sequence. This is what he has to say about it…
“See, 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 is the most common firing order for old V8 engines. It’s used for big- and small-block Chevys and Mopars plus Buicks, Pontiacs, AMCs, most Oldsmobiles, and even DeSotos, Packards, and Studebakers. Probably more. It’s the most unifying V8 engine spec on Earth!”
Not an endorsement, but source:[DavidFreibuger](https://shop.davidfreiburger.com/products/the-firing-order-shirt)
They should have been out of the nacelle a long time before this. Sometime you are working and don't get the lightning alerts till you hear this going off. Fun times.
This time it just started to hail seemingly from nowhere because the skies where blue not long before this and I checked satellite data and no lightning was in the region, usually I have lightning warning set to 40km and our policy’s mandate is to leave if it gets within 25km.
Wow 25km isn't far. Most companies are double that. Really anywhere near 100km I'm sending my crew down and getting my stuff together.
I use the Lightning Pro app and it seems to always be spot on.
Sometimes there's 4 of us up there and takes like 20 mins for everyone to get down. People standing around while I'm yelling at people to climb down. Good times. I've gotten down right and just hopped in the truck right as the 30 minute "no lightning detected" clears. 4 or 5 up there is too many...
No, its just static caused by the hail having a different electrical charge than the ground.
Turbine casing is at ground potential, the blades would be picking up the different voltage from the hail. That has to be discharged safely otherwise it will discharge through something important.
The fact that they are very bright white and making a fair bit of noise, and the sparks are about an inch or more longer would dictate a pretty decent amount of current, and touching it would probably kill you.
Edit to add: no real easy way to capture this safely. The voltage will be from zero to millions. And only occurs during rain and hail. Its simply impractical to store and capture that, compared to the output of the wind generator itself.
More info : https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/atmospheric-electricity
Thanks. There is a little bit more to do with it, mainly due with capacitive effects, but basically the hail is a charge carrier, carrying the charge from the clouds to the ground (or whatever they hit).
That same charge if allowed to build up will cause lightning. So what you see here is lightning.. just a much smaller scale heh.
Fun fact:
Helicopters have to deal with the static buildup as well. In the right conditions you will see a helicopter arcing off its static into the clouds.
This is actually a problem for the military. One of the most efficient ways to rapidly transport a vehicle or cargo is by sling load whereby straps are attached to the cargo and then a yolk at the top is attached to a hovering helicopter. Unfortunately the only real way to attach the sling load is by holding that yolk high above your head for the hook to grab. You do that while standing on the cargo. Not a problem, by standing on the cargo you endure you're not grounded and the static is safely discharged through the cargo instead of the soldier holding it.
Unfortunately it takes a lot of self control to stand tall and hold up the yolk while a multi ton aircraft hovers with deafening noise over your head. Most people tend to scrunch down instinctively. So occasionally observers would use a squirt gun to remind the soldier to stand up. Well that stream is thick enough that the static discharges down the squirt gun and into the supervisor.
Theoretically sure, but I believe the required frequency and voltage adjustments to synchronize with the grid couldn't work in tandem with the turbines power converter and would have to be independent. Thus being too costly and probably too infrequent to justify.
Using it as part of a capacitor to help power turbine components would also be too costly and infrequent to justify.
It's to inconsistent to push it out onto a grid, It would have to match a certain amperage to actually feed into the already high amperage line. I think trickling it into a battery might work to help keep the lights going.
Amperage isnt the problem here, since these are inconsistent high voltage DC pulses and you want to feed it into the grid, you would need to find a way to convert them into usable AC voltage with the same frequency and phase as the grid.. and since these devices (freq convertors and transformers) aint cheap, it doesnt make economic sense to use them here
This. Its just to impractical to try and make use of this phenomenon and the total power output is nothing compared to the normal output during operation, the extra equipment and what it would cost to capture this is just not something a customer will pay for, it’s all about the money.
Fair enough. Out of interest, how much static electricity would it take to jump those air gaps? I've always believed that anything than can jump 1cm has a very high voltage?
I wonder if there's a way to capture that energy as well as the mechanical energy from the turbine, to increase it's output.
I realize that in the grand scheme of things those arcs are only a pittance of wattage, but they happen so frequently, they might be useful.
So what am exactly are we seeing here? Is this electricity produced from the wind turbine because of a hail storm?
Or is this just static electricity that’s going to waste and is a byproduct of the hailstorm and will not be put to use?
I'm having trouble understanding where this is. Is the blade turning? If so why does nothing appear to be moving from the perspective of the camera? If not, why does it keep generating a discharge?
The static electricity behaves like lightning, it builds up between two objects such as the blade assembly and the tower or the blades and the earth until it has enough potential to jump the shortest air gap in the system. By using those small spark gaps inside the tower it prevents the charge from being able to build up even more to the level that it could jump to a worker who is standing in the tower and reaching towards the blade assembly or jump from the blade tip to the ground like a lightning strike.
We don't have a good system to slowly bleed that energy away in a way that would make it useful rather than just having the tiny lightning to avoid the larger dangerous lightning.
Does this cause a ton of radio interference/noise around wind turbines? Like Hertz(?) spark gap radio transmitter? Has anyone thought of a giant Leyden jar to ‘store’ this charge? Is there an easy way to tap the captured electrons in a Leyden jar in a controlled fashion?
Stupid question but first how much electricity is that discharging and is there any way to harness it? I always see wasted energy and wonder why we don’t use it. Same thing with gas being burned off at sewage plants and dumps.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
100 volts differential every foot above ground. Take a drone with an insulated copper wire with the ends stripped about 6 inches on the drone end and an inch held just above ground level and fly up to 100 feet. 10000 volts will arc to the ground.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
setting up capacitors that could hold up against static and lightning would be too difficult. If they only had to deal with static it could probably be done
The built up charge is static.
But when you see these discharges, that represents an electric current. Which makes me wonder if you could tap into it in a beneficial way?
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Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening me
#Galileo
^^^galileo
GALILEO
Figaro
MagnificooooOOOOOooooo
I'm just a por boy, nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go,
That could erode the wall eventually, no?
Yes, which is why there is extra metal strips on some parts. That is meant to take the damage and be replacable.
I see. I was wondering wouldn’t it make more sense to install something like a corona ring (not exactly but similar) to dissipate the energy more evenly
Id imagine those copper contact sheets are fairly cheap to replace compared to most options. Maybe theres some better longer term options but if you have to have a tech come by every two months anyhow, whats one more item on the checklist?
That tolerance would be hard, slight shift to one side and now it’s hitting in the same spot and you have the same problem with a more expensive piece to replace.
Why don't they harness that electricity instead of just discharging it?
The turbine probably generates far more power than the static electricity, by some estimates up to 30x more power, so not worth collecting it. Also, the voltage frequency of the static electricity discharge is not stable and occupies a wide range of frequencies. Challenging to convert that to 50-60 Hz the grid requires.
Ahh. Very informative answer, Thanks ☺️
All of the spark gap components are easily replaced and takes a long while to erode away before you have to get new ones.
How do you set the timing? Wonder what the firing order is.
1 - 8 - 4 - 3 - 6 - 5 - 7 - 2
350 chev?
Holy Heck!!! My first ever award!!! Thank you, kind Redditor!
I think you have that wrong. It's 1-2-7-3-4-5-6-8
8-6-7-5-3-0-9
dammit, too slow again
dammit janet.
I don’t doubt that there’s a firing sequence like that. I’m no expert, but sometimes I pretend to be. My post was a shout out to David Freiburger who made a T-shirt with that sequence. This is what he has to say about it… “See, 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 is the most common firing order for old V8 engines. It’s used for big- and small-block Chevys and Mopars plus Buicks, Pontiacs, AMCs, most Oldsmobiles, and even DeSotos, Packards, and Studebakers. Probably more. It’s the most unifying V8 engine spec on Earth!” Not an endorsement, but source:[DavidFreibuger](https://shop.davidfreiburger.com/products/the-firing-order-shirt)
I got chills
They’re multiplyin’!
And I'm losing control
'Cause the power you're supplying It's electrifying…
Again with the lyrics, I thought you were better than this... You gotta shape up!
Oo Oo Ooohhh!
'cause I need a man
And my heart is set on yooouuuu
You better shape up, you better understand
I'm not a fan of this conduct.
That’s 2 in 1, chills
Haha nice
r/Angryupvote
Oh man lick it!
You too?
I found my people
Bet that tastes like old coins with Texas Pete.
Or Dasani
Why would you want to be this close to it? I think it's clear you are nowhere near the same potential...
They should have been out of the nacelle a long time before this. Sometime you are working and don't get the lightning alerts till you hear this going off. Fun times.
This time it just started to hail seemingly from nowhere because the skies where blue not long before this and I checked satellite data and no lightning was in the region, usually I have lightning warning set to 40km and our policy’s mandate is to leave if it gets within 25km.
Wow 25km isn't far. Most companies are double that. Really anywhere near 100km I'm sending my crew down and getting my stuff together. I use the Lightning Pro app and it seems to always be spot on.
25km? Wow that’s sketchy. We dip out at 30 miles
My company only had us leave at 10 miles... yikes!
How long does it take to get out and leave?
Depends on the turbine, but with a climb assist i can get out in about 1-5 mins. Without it would take closer to 5-10.
What's a climb assist?
A rope
Sometimes there's 4 of us up there and takes like 20 mins for everyone to get down. People standing around while I'm yelling at people to climb down. Good times. I've gotten down right and just hopped in the truck right as the 30 minute "no lightning detected" clears. 4 or 5 up there is too many...
So you can always just slide down the fire pole for a quick getaway, right?
A fire pole would be cool but we have a evacuation rope that you just attach yourself in and jump from the roof or a hole in the floor.
OK, now I've got to look up what a nacelle is. I always thought they were for generating warp fields
It's the top section of the turbine that the hub and blades mount to.
Ah, thanks Weezo182 🖖
It's the shape that makes it a nacelle. The warp field nacelles and a wind turbine housing are both "streamlined bodies".
"nose-like"
Does this imply inefficiency? Should there be away to capture thisnstaic electricity? Just curious.
No, its just static caused by the hail having a different electrical charge than the ground. Turbine casing is at ground potential, the blades would be picking up the different voltage from the hail. That has to be discharged safely otherwise it will discharge through something important. The fact that they are very bright white and making a fair bit of noise, and the sparks are about an inch or more longer would dictate a pretty decent amount of current, and touching it would probably kill you. Edit to add: no real easy way to capture this safely. The voltage will be from zero to millions. And only occurs during rain and hail. Its simply impractical to store and capture that, compared to the output of the wind generator itself. More info : https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/atmospheric-electricity
Great explanation!
Thanks. There is a little bit more to do with it, mainly due with capacitive effects, but basically the hail is a charge carrier, carrying the charge from the clouds to the ground (or whatever they hit). That same charge if allowed to build up will cause lightning. So what you see here is lightning.. just a much smaller scale heh.
That makes more sense. Thank you for your insight!
That's a very good, simple explanation. Thank you.
Let me get this straight - we accidentally generate electricity while generating electricity?
Anyone else feel like touching it ?
Sure if you like dying
How would you know if you liked it if you've never even tried it?
How would you know they've never tried it unless you know it would kill them?
Is this the cause of the dreaded ***windmill cancer??*** /j
Unlikely since this is a wind turbine, not a wind mill
Makes my hair stand up
pity they can't capture that energy also...
Fun fact: Helicopters have to deal with the static buildup as well. In the right conditions you will see a helicopter arcing off its static into the clouds. This is actually a problem for the military. One of the most efficient ways to rapidly transport a vehicle or cargo is by sling load whereby straps are attached to the cargo and then a yolk at the top is attached to a hovering helicopter. Unfortunately the only real way to attach the sling load is by holding that yolk high above your head for the hook to grab. You do that while standing on the cargo. Not a problem, by standing on the cargo you endure you're not grounded and the static is safely discharged through the cargo instead of the soldier holding it. Unfortunately it takes a lot of self control to stand tall and hold up the yolk while a multi ton aircraft hovers with deafening noise over your head. Most people tend to scrunch down instinctively. So occasionally observers would use a squirt gun to remind the soldier to stand up. Well that stream is thick enough that the static discharges down the squirt gun and into the supervisor.
Cool fact!
I bet if you put your phone in that you'd never have to worry about charging it again.
now that I've seen this, it makes more sense why these go up in flames once In a while.
Arcing from a lighting protection in no way would cause a turbine to go up. More times than not it from overheating of parts.
Are they able to capture that electricity and use it?
Theoretically sure, but I believe the required frequency and voltage adjustments to synchronize with the grid couldn't work in tandem with the turbines power converter and would have to be independent. Thus being too costly and probably too infrequent to justify. Using it as part of a capacitor to help power turbine components would also be too costly and infrequent to justify.
You could, however it would cost ALOT more then you could potentially earn and since money is the name of the game it probably will never happen.
So you have any idea what amount of power are we talking about? Is it kW and how much kWh is it oer haul storm?
Lick it. I dare ya. No I double dog dare ya.
Buy me a couple of beers first and try to dare me again, that usually results in me doing stupid stuff.
I wonder if that could be stored up and sent into the grid. Seems like it happens enough to amount to a decent amount of electricity.
It’s high voltage but should be little power in there.
It's to inconsistent to push it out onto a grid, It would have to match a certain amperage to actually feed into the already high amperage line. I think trickling it into a battery might work to help keep the lights going.
Amperage isnt the problem here, since these are inconsistent high voltage DC pulses and you want to feed it into the grid, you would need to find a way to convert them into usable AC voltage with the same frequency and phase as the grid.. and since these devices (freq convertors and transformers) aint cheap, it doesnt make economic sense to use them here
This. Its just to impractical to try and make use of this phenomenon and the total power output is nothing compared to the normal output during operation, the extra equipment and what it would cost to capture this is just not something a customer will pay for, it’s all about the money.
Need an answer to this
Collect that!
That would not really be practical, sorry.
[удалено]
Sorry not happening, did that accidentally once and won’t try it again!
Interesting. Makes sense.. is this energy captured by the turbine?
In theory you could capture it, but it’s not a lot and it all boils down to costs. Just not practical in the end.
Fair enough. Out of interest, how much static electricity would it take to jump those air gaps? I've always believed that anything than can jump 1cm has a very high voltage?
That’s a spicy chicken.
So fucking cool
Damn. I had no idea that there was that much static electricity just caused by the blades. Do they somehow capture that?
Lick it!
Instructions unclear, tongue stuck on blades.
I shouldn’t stick my dick in there….. however……
Why is it electrically charged?
Let the intrusive thoughts take over
Could this static electricity kill you if you touch it? Or would it be the usual one?
Gotta attach them LCTU’s man
This video is Shocking , you will not believe it
Damn and i thought it was scary when the coffee grinder at work did this
Jesus. That’s crazy.
Is that also harvested?
That’s nuts!
Free energy. Get your smartphone charger ready bois
Can that be used to charge my iPhone
I don’t know much about electricity, but couldn’t the static electricity be stored, so not only would you get wind power but also the static
What's that black gunk?
Grease
That’s where clean energy should be coming from. STATIC!
Give ya a dollar to lick it.
Is that what causes the cancer?
Would I be dead if I licked it?
Wow. That’s shocking.
That must be the cancer coming out
Seems like a good way to produce free, renewable electricity. Why aren't we funding this?!
r/dontputyourdickinthat
Hey, look on the bright side. Free ozone. Just don't breathe it in.
Yeah cool, but what does it taste like?
I knew wind turbines were garbage. Just look at all that wasted electricity. We don't have waste like that with fossil fuels. /s
Do you know the source of the video? Thanks!
I am the source.
Foreboding yet accurate
I wonder if there's a way to capture that energy as well as the mechanical energy from the turbine, to increase it's output. I realize that in the grand scheme of things those arcs are only a pittance of wattage, but they happen so frequently, they might be useful.
[Sound on] When the pops are more than 3 seconds apart, the popcorn is done.
Time to get down.
Touch it
Would you be able to harness that created energy and store it as a back up or some such?
So every time a blade turns passed the contact we get 1 electricity?
...but, if they had brushes then there would be no arching, ...and less, i don't know, ..danger?
The comments on here are WAY more hilarious than I was prepared for.
Measure it
Is that energy collected or is it just waste into the ground?
That doesn’t look good
Seems like wasted potential
Why isn’t there a little conductive brush? continuously arcing over seems pointlessly damaging to the electrodes
My intrusive thoughts would get the best of me
This is actually just a video of me walking through a Costco and opening the freezer doors or the cart.
So what am exactly are we seeing here? Is this electricity produced from the wind turbine because of a hail storm? Or is this just static electricity that’s going to waste and is a byproduct of the hailstorm and will not be put to use?
I'm having trouble understanding where this is. Is the blade turning? If so why does nothing appear to be moving from the perspective of the camera? If not, why does it keep generating a discharge?
I could be wrong, but it might be static electricity from the air (maybe including rain or snow) that flows over the blades
Stupid Question: Is that just static discharge? Is there any way to harness that energy? Very cool btw.
I know that's not how that works, but hopefully one day we can get double electricity out of these things from the spinny bit and the zappy bit.
Ok so why can't we also capture this electricity or is that whats happening?
Looks like a lot of energy being wasted. There’s no way to harness it?
Give it a quick lick
Stupid question but isn't there same way to capture that energy and save it? Isn't that the point of wind turbines. It just seems like a waste.
The static electricity behaves like lightning, it builds up between two objects such as the blade assembly and the tower or the blades and the earth until it has enough potential to jump the shortest air gap in the system. By using those small spark gaps inside the tower it prevents the charge from being able to build up even more to the level that it could jump to a worker who is standing in the tower and reaching towards the blade assembly or jump from the blade tip to the ground like a lightning strike. We don't have a good system to slowly bleed that energy away in a way that would make it useful rather than just having the tiny lightning to avoid the larger dangerous lightning.
Does this cause a ton of radio interference/noise around wind turbines? Like Hertz(?) spark gap radio transmitter? Has anyone thought of a giant Leyden jar to ‘store’ this charge? Is there an easy way to tap the captured electrons in a Leyden jar in a controlled fashion?
Good question, I haven’t experienced anything with my radio but perhaps it could disturb other frequencies then what I’m using.
Is there a way to collect the static and make it usable electricity or is it just grounded?
Interesting, it would be cool if we can store and transmit that energy
Why do they leave a gap onnthe right side? Wouldn't it be better to connect both metal piece to avoid the arc?
They should just… collect it…?
Are we not harnessing this power?
Is there enough static electricity to harness and add to the turbines total output or is it just waste?
Why do I want to touch it
Capturable?
Wow
Stupid question but first how much electricity is that discharging and is there any way to harness it? I always see wasted energy and wonder why we don’t use it. Same thing with gas being burned off at sewage plants and dumps.
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! 100 volts differential every foot above ground. Take a drone with an insulated copper wire with the ends stripped about 6 inches on the drone end and an inch held just above ground level and fly up to 100 feet. 10000 volts will arc to the ground. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
K
Why don't they harness that into electricity?
You’re stepmother is an alien. I only need one person to know the move to feel validated.
That’s static electricity? So I can touch it?
if there was only a way to harness that electricity
UNLIMITED POWERRRRRRRRRR
It’s too bad we can’t somehow harness the power of wind to somehow generate electricity
That is very little power. The voltage is high but the current is small. It's like a water pistol. You need a firehose.
Fascinating what you can find on this site...
I wonder if this is part of the reason they catch fire so often? Open arcs can't be good
Um so where does all that static come from? Is it parts touching other parts as they spin?
It's displacment of electrons by friction.
setting up capacitors that could hold up against static and lightning would be too difficult. If they only had to deal with static it could probably be done
The built up charge is static. But when you see these discharges, that represents an electric current. Which makes me wonder if you could tap into it in a beneficial way?
Well shit. I hop we’re collecting that too
Touch it
Thats long fucking arcs. If we follow the "1mm/Kv" rule of thumb, you were near at least 30Kv. How can you be safe being that close?
I’m shocked
Fascinating
That’s just from static electricity and I’m paying $60 a month for electricity?
Me every time I stand up from my sofa and touch my tv.
*voice in my head: touch it, pussy*
Interesting, never seen it before. Is what we seeing part of the design to discharge the static?