Lightning Protection

Anything about construction that doesn't fit into any of the above

Lightning Protection

Postby blue on Fri Oct 15, 2010 7:57 pm

Hi all

First of all, thanks for the great site and oodles of information.

I wanted to ask around for some experience on lightning protection for your wind turbines. We have a 12ft 24V turbine that was struck by lightning a few weeks ago, which fried the rectifier, a charge controller and the logic board in the inverter. We can improve the grounding of the tower, but I think the problem is in the high current induced in the stator coil when the lightning strikes, which then runs through to the control panel.

Has anybody else had any problems with lightning strikes? What are your thoughts on the matter?

Many thanks.
blue
 
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Re: Lightning Protection

Postby windgat on Sun Oct 17, 2010 8:28 pm

Lightning has so much power it is difficult to ensure it does no damage. Best thing one can do is THOROUGHLY ground the pole. For example drive a grounding spike (specially made low resistance sharpened metal bar) at least a metre into the ground, and connect it to the pole with thick braided copper cable bolted to the pole. Additional spikes would reduce the resistance to ground. Also, the highest point of the turbine should be metal which is also connected to the top of the pole.
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