The purpose of a power generation source is, funnily enough, to generate power as and when it’s needed, not merely to withstand the vagaries of the weather.
Wind speeds barely need to reach gale force and these things go into automatic shutdown, as appears on German turbine maker, Siemen’s website – which has this to say about the automatic shutdown of wind turbines when wind speeds hit 25m/s (90km/h):
Nature presents us with different kinds of challenges. High wind can create extremely high loads, and as a result wind turbines are normally programmed to shut down if the 10-minute mean wind speed exceeds 25 m/s. This may pose a significant challenge for the grid system – for example, if turbines in large wind farms shut down simultaneously.
It was precisely that feature of their ‘design’ that led to South Australia’s Statewide blackout on 28 September 2016.
In September 2017, Texans were walloped by Hurricane Harvey.
Despite having the largest wind power capacity in the USA, it was nuclear power that supplied Texans with the electricity they needed throughout the tempest and deluge: its wind power fleet automatically shutdown, going into self-preservation mode, while its nuclear generation plant never missed a beat.
Then there’s the complete destruction of turbines when the wind really picks up (see the video above).
In September 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed hundreds of wind turbines across Puerto Rico. And typhoons have clocked up plenty of turbine ‘kills’ in both Taiwan and Japan. And the turbines in all of these events were firmly anchored on terra firma.
The wind industry talks about their ‘distributed’ generation system as a positive, designed to overcome Mother Nature. Except Cyclones, Typhoons and Hurricanes have a tendency to distribute wind turbine blades and other components over tremendous distances. Perhaps not the ‘distribution’ they had in mind?
Now that there are hundreds of these things offshore (larger both in terms of size and capacity) and completely exposed to both howling winds and giant hurricane driven waves, the prospect of a total wind turbine wipeout is on the cards the next time a hurricane the intensity of Harvey hits the Atlantic coast. Chris Placitella makes the point below.
Hurricane Threats to Ocean Wind Turbines
YouTube
Chris Placitella
29 February 2024
New Jersey has approved hundreds of 1300 foot wind turbines off the New Jersey Coast without researching on knowing whether they can survive hurricanes & nor’ easters which can result in chemical spills and other environmental concerns impacting the coastline. This video lays out the facts and urges action. Links to reports can be found here and here
Transcript
Back in 2006 the governor appointed a Blue ribbon panel to examine the viability of wind turbines off of the New Jersey coast and that panel was bipartisan. It worked for over a year to take testimony, read submissions from all the stakeholders and to come up with a plan with recommendations and one of the major concerns of that panel was what about hurricanes? And that’s important because that same Blue Ribbon panel recommendation is still endorsed today as something that must be followed and they were very concerned back in 2006 as they are today about the severe weather conditions off the New Jersey coast and how that would affect the viability of the current wind turbines plan. Even Atlantic Shores, who was given the contract for one of these projects has indicated that it has concerns over what will happen with a hurricane and they’ve actually stated that one of the consequences could be chemical spills and then obviously the natural coincidence of that would be beach closures and other very significant concerns.
Even this year in 2024 the BPU who was in charge of Permitting these projects said that the Atlantic hurricanes still pose a significant potential threat but even more alarming is that the BPU has stated that there’s been really little technical research um about the effects of hurricanes on the Wind turban projects. So you have to wonder if there is so little research what are we doing? They say in their in their most recent report that there’s there’s little scientific or engineering backing for what has gone on so far so if this is what happens on-shore during a hurricane then what happens offshore during the hurricane? What do you think is going to happen without some mitigation factors to 1300 foot turbines, 10 miles out into the ocean?
So before we go any further and before any further plans move forward we need to have these answer these questions answered so I’m urging you write your legislators and tell them stop get the answers and then reconvene on what is the most appropriate course from this point forward.
YouTube
STOP THESE THINGS 
Personally, I wish the whole lot would blow over – we can use the scrap metal etc to build more nuclear power plants
A little bit off-topic, but….
If a wind turbine blade breaks over a farmer’s field, the crop can’t be harvested, and livestock cannot graze on it, because of fiberglass contamination. If it gets into surface water, the downstream farmers are screwed too. Lease holders out-lawyer the farmers, who don’t get compensation for their damages, and are thereby twice screwed.
Where are the activists? They don’t seem to care about the prospect of fiberglass in their cod or salmon.
Have you noticed that the single white women in America who are the most intent on aborting their unborn babies are the most vocal advocates for destroying energy systems to save the planet for future generations? Ummm, what future generations?