Lightning Protection For Wind Turbines

Climate change as well as challenging environments across the globe have created a growing interest in the exploration of green energy production.  As populations rise in established areas and expand into previously under populated spaces, the need for alternative methods of creating power grow increasingly important.  When combined with the understanding that even small amounts of pollution are not beneficial to our environment, we see that the debate between power production methodologies becomes one that is almost entirely economic.  The choices that are made by countries or localized governments that have to do with the methods of power production for their citizens, are influenced not only by the technology and ability to produce a stable stream of energy, but also by the expenses involved in the production itself and the ability of powerful lobbyists to influence governing officials.  Fossil fuels are able to be utilized to produce power effectively however they are always going to produce a certain amount of damage to the environment, and are going to also have certain costs associated with their mining, refinement, transport and purchase.  Green energy technologies use free sources of power to generate the same electrical product as fossil fuels.  The expenses involved in green energy technologies are seen in the care and maintenance of the systems as well as the equipment procurement, repair and storage systems involved in the process.  One of the most obvious examples of the challenges that increase these costs is wind power production.

The typical wind tower is usually the tallest structure within an area, so as to remain unobstructed.  That same tower is generally made of a large amount of metal.  This ultimately makes the tower itself a target for lightning strikes.  Lightning will usually hit the blades or nacelle, which are made of composite materials that do not have the ability to effectively withstand a direct lightning strike.  The additional damage that is seen after a lightning strike involves the power surge that travels through the associated tower and overwhelms computerized equipment that is held within it.  This surge also has the ability to travel throughout the entire wind farm, moving through electrical components interconnected by cabling.  Once the tower has been struck, surge protection devices that are mounted throughout it do their jobs and divert the surge to ground, rendering them inoperable to protect against another such surge until replaced. If lightning strikes again before these components are replaced the tower is at risk of surge damage and can even become inoperable.  The difficulties in replacing surge protection components within structures like this, combined with the losses associated with offline power production statuses during times when the free wind fuel source is available, creates a situation where power production using this method can be more expensive than using simple fossil fuels to accomplish the same goal.  Luckily, the integration of more technologically advanced surge protection devices can potentially solve these issues.  These new devices have the ability to remain functional even after a surge incident, ultimately resulting in fewer repair calls and more uptime.  As we see larger scale rollouts of wind farms using the more advanced surge protection systems, we are seeing that the prices of green energy can be brought until it is in line with fossil fuels.  This represents the ability to transition over to cleaner and less costly production methods, and also illustrates a brighter future.