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Kahuku Wind farm battery fire still dangerous, offline 

Credit:  Maui TV News | mauitvnews.com 3 August 2012 ~~

The long version: “Given the structural damage to the battery storage building and residual smoke, it will take some time for technical experts and fire inspectors to safely enter the facility to investigate the cause and extent of the damage. We are determined to find the cause of this incident, take the necessary corrective measures, and get this wind project back in operation.”

That’s the official statement regarding the still-smoldering Kahuku wind farm fire. The short version: “We still don’t know what happened and we’re not going in until the scene is safe.”

Firefighters are battling a fire at a wind farm in Kahuku that has shut the operation down and appears to have destroyed the facility’s battery building.

The fire started about 4:45 a.m. Wednesday and has been confined to one building, which houses a 15-megawatt battery system for the 30-megawatt wind project.

Honolulu Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said an alarm sensor showed a buildup of heat, and video cameras recorded a fire starting in the battery banks.

The batteries, which smooth out fluctuations in power output caused by changes in wind levels and connect the turbines to the electrical grid, were still burning about 4 p.m. and emitting various chemicals in smoke, which was blowing toward the mountains and not affecting homes, Seelig said.

Firefighters can’t use water because of the voltage in the system and have been using dry chemicals to try to smother the fire. But firefighters don’t have enough chemicals for the size of the fire and are being assisted by the Hawaiian Electric Co., which has a truck that can carry 1,000 pounds of fire-extinguishing dry chemicals.

Seelig said fire personnel are focusing on saving the surrounding buildings because the battery building appears to be collapsing.

“It’s basically going to be considered a total loss,” he said of the battery building.

Kekoa Kaluhiwa, spokesman for First Wind in Hawaii, said the company has idled its 12 turbines, which stand on 575 acres above Kamehameha Highway.

“We have taken the project offline for the time being,” he said. He said the cause was unknown and no one was injured.

The complex is the island’s first large-scale wind farm, developed by Boston-based First Wind with a dozen 2.5-megawatt wind turbines that can produce enough electricity for 7,700 homes. The three-blade turbines sit on steel towers 260 feet high, with turbine blades reaching 460 feet at their peak.

The 15-megawatt battery energy storage system was designed by Xtreme Power Inc. of Kyle, Texas.

First Wind began selling electricity to HECO in March 2011.

Darren Pai, HECO spokesman, said the fire is not affecting HECO customers.

“We have sufficient generating capacity to meet our customers’ needs,” he said.

The Kahuku project’s 30-megawatt output is a small part of HECO’s islandwide peak load of about 1,250 megawatts.

It’s not the first fire at the fledgling wind farm.

In April 2011, a month after operations began, firefighters put out a small fire in the battery room.

Source:  Maui TV News | mauitvnews.com 3 August 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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