Windmills are a prime source of generating sustainable renewable energy, but recently an unfortunate incident happened in Texas that caused an operational windmill to catch fire. The incident has become the talk of the town after it was struck by lightning yesterday and, as a result, fabricated itself into a pattern of smokey rings. Some of the residents took a video of this unfortunate incident, and it went viral on the internet due to the unusual pattern of smokey rings that it made. Given below is a published 45-second clip of a burning windmill captured by one of the residents, and later on, a local news channel broadcasted it onto their Twitter handle. The video is embedded below.
You can see in the video below how even after being set on fire due to lightning, the windmill still revolves, but this time, the blades are flaming, thus causing the formation of the rings of smoke. However, as soon as a few seconds passed, the fire became more intense, thus causing the entire structure of the windmill to disintegrate. However, the person who made the video said, “That was pretty insane to watch!”
On the other hand, another witness captured the video from the opposite side of the windmill and uploaded a video that demonstrates that there is some agricultural equipment in the foreground of the windmill that is standing behind its back and burning. Now the question arises, due to the advancement of technology, why the authorities haven’t predicted the weather conditions like thunderstorms and lightning that might affect the operations of turbines. However, it should be noted that most turbines are constructed by integrating the most basic features, like grounding down conductors.
Some manufacturers incorporate the use of additional equipment and features that can predict the conditions of thunderstorms or extreme weather events beforehand and save the windmills from any unforeseen circumstances. Also, the safety of windmills is very important, not only because of their ability to generate renewable energy but also because of their costly nature. You would be amazed to know that a typical windmill costs between $2 million and $4 million. Therefore, to secure the business from any obvious losses and to save the environment from any degradation, it is necessary for the owners to install additional safety equipment for windmills to prevent them from any disaster.