Over­view

In re­cent years the use of wind en­ergy has be­come es­tab­lished with high growth rates and good pro­spects for the fu­ture. Simple ro­tors have be­come more and more power­ful high-tech power sta­tions. Nowadays the design of new per­form­ance classes plus their off­shore loc­a­tions re­quire a high level of in­vest­ment - and the pro­tec­tion of the in­vest­ment against in­ter­rup­tions in op­er­a­tion and even total loss. Up till now man­u­fac­turer, op­er­ator and fire bri­gades have been help­less when deal­ing with the risk of a fire. The ma­chine cabin, the heart of a wind en­ergy fa­cil­ity con­tains gen­er­at­ors, gears, brakes, switch cab­in­ets, trans­formers and con­vert­ers, and so rep­res­ents a spe­cially high fire risk. If a fire should break out as the res­ult of over­heat­ing of com­pon­ents, elec­trical faults or a light­ning strike, then the fire will find plenty of com­bust­ible ma­ter­ial in the form of min­eral oils, lub­ric­ants, plastics and elec­tronic com­pon­ents. The ex­posed loc­a­tion of the ma­chine cabin re­stricts fire de­part­ments' at­tempts at fight­ing the fire; the usual ap­proach is there­fore the con­trolled, com­plete burn out. And with off­shore fa­cil­it­ies any out­side help would in any event ar­rive too late.

Protected Area

1

Switch cab­inet

2

Na­celle

3

Trans­formers

1. 1

   Switch cab­inet

2. 2

   Na­celle

3. 3

   Trans­formers