The Mainchi News in Japan has a news article discussing the difficulty that Japanese wind turbine sites are having with lightning. The article quotes wind turbine manufacturer Mitsubishi who is doubling the number of receptors on their blades to help reduce lightning damage.
The coastline on the Sea of Japan has a high lightning strike rate and wind turbines along this coast definitely need extra protection.
Adding WXGuard lightning diverters to Mitsubishi’s existing lightning receptors would greatly improve the performance of the lightning receptors and help reduce damage!
The news story that triggered this post was originally published in Mainichi News, and was reviewed by National Wind Watch, where you can read more about the incident. Image credit: Mainichi/Wind Watch.
Update: a 2014 report from the Fire Safety Science-Proceedings of the Eleventh International Symposium of the International Association for Fire Safety Science went into more detail about similar instances, and presented some additional insight into mitigating fires on Wind Turbines ignited by lightning strikes.
As a leading lightning protection expert, Allen Hall has worked in lightning protection of wind turbines and aircraft for more than 20 years. He served as a Senior Technical Specialist for Lightning Technologies, Inc. for 10 years and is an FAA designated engineering representative (DER). To schedule a consultation with Hall regarding the best lightning protection design and implementation for your wind turbine or aerospace project, call 413.217.1139 or contact us here.
