Photo Steve Nowakowski
By Jo Nova
Just another day trapped in the impossibility paradox — trying to change the troposphere on the cheap…
Asbestos has been found in GoldWind turbines, and now in Vestas turbines too. Both were using brake pads supplied by 3S Industry, a company based in China. The brake-pads are small, and contained within the lifts inside the towers, so at the moment, not likely to be spraying asbestos fibres across forests and farms. But no one will be sending unprotected workers up any of those wind turbines until those pads are replaced.
However as Rachel Williamson says at Renew Economy, it’s likely this is just the “tips of the iceberg”:
“Several sources confirmed to Renew Economy that 3S supplies the brake pads to almost every turbine OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer] supplying Australia. “
The opposition has called for a halt on new turbines as the asbestos scare spreads. Both companies are quarantining an undisclosed number of turbines. So at best, even if the health risk is small, it’s just another nasty surprise, another delay, and another cost for the Renewable Crash Test Dummy.
Who would have thought that building thousands of square kilometers of industrial infrastructure to catch the sun and breezes would be so complicated?
Federal opposition demands halt to new wind turbines as asbestos scare spreads
By Christine Middap, The Australian
It comes as opposition industrial relations and employment spokesman Tim Wilson urged Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen to order a national safety review and temporary moratorium on new turbine installations, warning of the operational and reputational risks the issue posed to the country’s clean energy transition.
“The importation of asbestos-containing goods into Australia has been banned since 2003, yet this incident suggests that components containing asbestos may have been distributed widely within the renewable energy sector,’’ he said.
We might not want to be 100% dependent on China to make us all the widgets we want:
Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said the asbestos cases highlighted the risk of relying entirely on overseas supply chains for Australia’s renewables transition.
“Right now we are building these massive infrastructure projects with nearly zero per cent Australian content. That is unacceptable and unsafe,’’ he said.
We’d love to revive Australian manufacturing, but we’re buying it all from China because it’s all we can afford. If we make the brakepads and widgets ourselves, it’ll make renewable energy even more expensive than it already is. Let’s not forget — things cost less in China because they’re burning our coal, they treat their workers badly, the quality assurance is poor, and the environmental standards are terrible. That is not a race that we want to win. How many people should we kill today to save one spotted quoll in 2095? Where are those sums?
Still, it could have been worse. At least we didn’t put the Chinese-made brake pads in preschools across the country and then have to close 70 schools while we clean the carpet in hazmat suits.
I read it was white asbestos. Used for thousands of years. Blue and brown are the deadly ones.
The white asbestos scare is about as stupid as the global warming idiocy.
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This is about grid “COMPLIANCE”. How did this piece of equipment get through customs?
Why are these windmills still installed?
Why has this obvious compliance failure not resulted in heads rolling at our energy regulators, both state and federal?
Lies have been told. Heads must roll. Criminal prosecutions should happen.
These windmills have voided any insurance coverage.
Who guarantees their finance?
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No, this is just politics. Wind farms are beyond stupid, but not because of this.
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Windmills are political. They distort grid costs by just existing. If they are not compliant then they cannot be imported or installed. Grifters would have known this. They must be held to account. If not, we will not only destroy grid economics but support government theft.
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From early in the US “anti-asbestos” campaign attention was drawn to type of asbestos use in USA
The only use of asbestos other than white in USA was by the US Navy for a short time after Pearl Harbour
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Admiral Elmo Zumwalt USN died of mesothelioma.
Rear Admiral David Martin RAN died of mesolthelioma.
Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer associated with asbestos exposure. Asbestos was widely used as lagging on steam powered navy ships. I am not sure what type of asbestos was used.
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Early 20th Century warships were using white asbestos. During WW1 the Brits were running out of it or access to it and someone noticed that there were deposits they could get of blue asbestos so supplies were stretched by mixing it with white asbestos. It did not take long before the problems appeared.
See “Scared to Death” by Christopher Booker and Richard North. Available on Kindle.
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A lot of the PMG telephone cable pits were asbestos. Friend died of the disease, even though he only spent a short period of his career working with these pits. When NBN cables were installed, one of their major cost issues was to replace all the old cable pits.
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I’d suggest that if today’s thread had a soundtrack, it would be the song Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil.
Ironically the vocalist has been very vocal with his ant-nuclear views in the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Sky_Mine
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Exactly! This is the dividend of ALL asbestos is bad.
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Because it is basically true. You can bond it up and cover it over, but claiming that it is safe because it is locked away is like saying lions are safe when they are caged.
White asbestos is not safe.
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Asbestos break linings do not generate fibrous asbestos dust when in use. The dust when examined has lost its fibrotic nature during the intense friction of breaking and is no longer hazardous. I’ve examined break-lining dust myself under the microscope.
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Oh, garbage, there are millions of Australians who have lived in fibro homes, some of them for 60+ years, who haven’t suffered from mesothelioma.
There are more millions who used asbestos pads on a regular basis in kitchens and laboratories across a period of more than 100 years.
The problem form of asbestos is blue asbestos, which is the only one in which the fibres are small enough to get right down into the lungs and cause mesothelioma.
All the rest is simply hysterics.
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So called white asbestos is dangerous. Being less dangerous than blue doesn’t change that fact. Love to see you cite research that debunks what I wrote.
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It’s all based on fibre length. Blue fibres are the shortest, which is why they are blue.
Any long indigestible fibre is a real problem in the fragile lungs. Loose Fiberglass roof insulation, as will be discovered in time.
In the 19th century and before, bakers rarely lived past forty. Yeast and flour in the lungs, Baker’s lung.
Coal miner’s black lung. So many occupational hazards. Plumbers went Plumb crazy with lead (Plumbum).
Mad as a Hatter with arsenic used to cure the leather. Phossy Jaw from Phosphorous for Avesta matches.
Radium poisoning for luminous watches. But the usual behaviour is a total ban and demonstration of any problem, like fossil fuels. Not judicious use of mercury, lead, arsenic, radium, uranium. Complete bans, like Victoria’s ban on Uranium and Thorium and effective ban on new gas and harvesting trees. Even picking up stricks.
Lead in petrol for example, not a massive reduction but a complete ban.
And rare earths, no longer mined anywhere much but China thanks to the Greens activism. And they went up from $8 a kilo to $250 a kilo once China had the world markets thanks to the Greens.
Which also goes to show no one cares at all about the Chinese miners and their working conditions. Certainly not the Greens.
The environmental movement is more ‘I’m all right Jack’ and who cares about the poor people?
Then Climate Change, NIMBY at a Country level where Australia will presumably have it’s own national climate, quite safe from Global Warming. It’s maddening and wrong and selfish, even if it were true.
Our very own Climate Change policy and Minister whose whole mission is to destroy Australia to save Australia. When he looks more like someone focussed on his own agenda and success. And the ones who benefit from his Green policies are the upper classes in China while they imprison and enslave their own people and use them for organ transplants and control them with social scores.
There’s never any balance. Or sense. Or science. But that’s what totalitarians do. And the Australia government is a whisker away from an autocracy where parliament is kept in the dark, the ministers do what they like and the Prime Minister commutes six times to Beijing to get his instructions and is accountable to no one. Certainly not parliament.
Asbestos is just an inconvenient discovery. If it’s from China, we will be told it’s good for us.
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White Asbestos is not safe. It is a known human carcinogen. Simply look it up.
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Found the source: “Scared to Death” by Christopher Booker and Richard North. Available on Kindle.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Scared-Death-Global-Warming-Costing-ebook/dp/B08F7LD1TK/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1
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Crikey, a “scare campaign” for a scare campaign.
And Black-Out Bowen will just shrug his shoulders.
A bit of their own medicine?
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Everything about these toxic so called “safe clean and green” disasters is a very dangerous sick joke.
How long before we use only safe BASELOAD energy and restore our pristine environments and wake up to the fact that energy security is critical for our national security?
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When asbestos is used in brake pads and the brakes are acivated, the dust that comes of it is burned asbestos with none of the potentially deadly fibers.
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Its amazing it is such a perfect process isnt it?
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I wouldn’t gamble my health on that theory.
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Bumped from late Tuesday thread
IIRC there was a find in gaskets a while back
https://www.asbestos.qld.gov.au/resources/safety-alerts/safety-alert-asbestos-car-gaskets
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Has anyone yet established the actual “type” of asbestos in question.
Amusingly enough, there are several substances with the word “asbestos” in their title, that have VERY different chemical structures AND physical characteristics.
And, as expected, the zillion-dollar “upgrade to the BOM site is still not working properly,
What the Hell. it’s only the mug taxpayers’ MONEY. “Accountability NOT required, as per SOP.
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White asbestos, unlike blue and brown, both of the latter are more dangerous.
Fifty years ago there were over 30 types of “asbestos”. One had minuscule particles and had a deal of health data showing it did not cause disease, but it was prohibited from use because of the A name.
As far as I know it was used by a firm for 20 odd years later since it wasn’t actually labelled (on the drums) as asbestos.
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Well, I’ll put in a good word for asbestos, then. It is an excellent building material, far superior to plaster board. (Pity about the lung disease.)
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indeed, the reason why asbestos was used so extensively in many forms & applications. It is also a brilliant insulator..
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If this type of asbestos is found in your house, are you required to remove it at your own expense? Yes, that’s right. So the same rules must apply to wind turbines. NB, the cost must be paid by whoever owns and/or operates them, not by the public. If they go bust, so be it.
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Not all forms of asbestos are extremely dangerous (e.g. chrysotile is less dangerous and is easier to clear from the lungs) but the Official Narrative says they are and it’s probably best to avoid exposure, regardless of the standard propaganda.
But the Sheeple have been indoctrinated by Leftist social engineers to be in a permanent state of terror about just about everything e.g. covid, climate change, the “far right” (meaning conservatives) etc..
If the stupid people who promote scare campaigns to promote windmills want to subject themselves to a scare campaign on top of their original scare campaign as noted by Just Thinkin’, then that’s just hilarious.
I just hope our taxes are NOT used to pay for a solution, directly or indirectly.
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A friend, a lawyer, had a neighbour gas himself in his garage. They didn’t try to rescue him, because they thought carbon monoxide meant instant death..
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A unionist wants to make things in Australia? When does this alternate reality end?
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Crazy isn’t it.
He probably wants to work a 30 hour week, 4 smoko breaks per day, not have to work on hot days or rainy days, 12 month parental leave, 4 weeks sick leave etc. etc.
I wonder why it costs so much to produce anything in Australia?
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100% correct Uber. Exactly my thoughts when I read it……they are the VERY reason we have cost blowouts and overruns on every major Guvvy project and the main reason we make very little here anymore….Bloody Unions !!!
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I’m more concerned about the Bisphenol A dripping from the edges of the blades.
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Difficult to say how many blade manufacturers use BPA. There is also the problem of blade leading edges gradually losing fibreglass fibres and dispersing them throughout the countryside.
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G4:
From use of epoxy resins? Unlikely they would decompose at ambient conditions.
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Admittedly, most of the worst cases have been when blades fail, spreading fibreglass fibres everywhere. Sad case in Iowa that destroyed the farm’s ability to grow crops, where one turbine failed and spread fibres across the entire farm. The farmer couldn’t sell anything and was faced with a massive cleanup bill .The wind factory operators walked away from the problem.
Also the single offshore turbine failure in Nantucket that spread fibres along their beaches in summer and also polluted the fishing grounds.
Not sure, but I thought there is an additional problem with the leading edges of the blades gradually breaking up and shedding fibres.
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Composite (carbon, glassor kevlar) aircraft propellers have nickel sheathing on their leading edges otherwise they erode in rain or dust. Should be possible to do the same for wind turbines. Due to lower speed aluminium would likely do as aircraft are made of aluminium (traditionally anyway).
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Original Equipment Manufacturer.
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It’s really annoying when an article includes a TLA and there’s no explanation.
[Good point! Fixed. Thank you. – Jo]
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As this is a mass panic situation, the people who will be paid to remove the asbestos will demand large amounts of tribute to be paid to them. Asbestos removal is always expensive, the panic and terror will make it much more so. The removal cost may even destroy the economic viability of the affected wind plantations.
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If the states are burdened with the replacement / clean up cost Victoria will probably recoup the costs by imposing a fancy name to a levy. So, the equivalent of the Fire Services Levy used to pay back COVID costs. Maybe they could call it the Koala Preservation levy which will be added to all our power bills? Save a few koalas but the rest goes towards the asbestos clean up.
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Or they will further place an impost on rental property owners on top of the extra $975 per year covid levy attached to land tax. That will completely destroy private ownership of rental properties, as is their wish.
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Does this mean that every windmill will have to be shut down until the brake pads are checked for asbestos, after all if the works can’t be checked and maintained, how can it be used.
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They wouldn’t dare shut them all down because then people would notice no difference as they produce so little electricity anyway, despite huge nameplate.
The real electricity gets produced by diminishing coal and gas; and limited real hydro and will continue to do so until they shut down the very last power station. Then the lights go out except if you are off-grid as RickWill suggests we become.
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I reckon there’d be more of an issue with environmental contamination from Bisphenol-A contained in the micro resin eroding from rotating turbine blades in all the wind factories across Australia. Remember many of these are sited on high elevation ridge tops in what was pristine forests on head water drainage catchments. Picture the evolving food chain down stream from these ‘sustainable’ monstrosities. Green, renewable, sustainable, cheap NOT.
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I looked into one Scandinavian study on those kinds of residues years ago and the numbers were very small, but if there is a newer study, I’m interested.
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The early Chinese vehicle imports had the same issue.
You would have to think poor quality control on manufacture. I wonder if specifications went into that detail.
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Specifications are one thing, import restrictions are another.
There is no need to write ‘thou shall not kill’ into a specification. Similarly, import restrictions cannot be waived by a commercial contract and hence no need to write the obvious. Anyone who has imported the asbestos containing products is up for a large clean up bill and if the feds want to, a large bill for non-compliance with the legislation.
https://www.abf.gov.au/importing-exporting-and-manufacturing/prohibited-goods/asbestos
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I know a fellow who ordered an electric scooter to use on the golf course. He ended up having it dumped because the cost of getting it compliant for road use (not his intention) was too much. So specification for imported goods needs to make reference to local legal requirements.
There would be an overriding clause to meet any legal requirements but a Chinese manufacturer would not be aware of all the legal requirements in Australia. My point was that the problem of asbestos in parts from China was well known so It should have been a specific item in the spec and then inspected to confirm it.
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I’ve written a lot of specifications, never needed to mention the legal requirements of importation. Our lawyers always advised against mentioning ANY laws because if you start and you miss one, then the contractor has a legal claim to state that they did not have to meet ALL requirements, just the ones you mentioned. Besides, the general terms of contract cover it anyway, eg compliance under the laws of Oz.
Sometimes being silent is a louder outcome than opening your mouth. Our lawyers always said it is best to say nothing, less chance of the contractor finding a hole.
As an example of the foreign company not knowing our rules, electrically, if you import a chinese made electrical good it must be compliant with Oz rules, the onus is not on the manufacturer it is on the importer. This includes the cost of rectification and/or recall, etc.
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Rick,
As a keen and qualified photographer, I looked forward to buying a drone with camera to explore exciting perspectives that were not so easy without a drone.
Then the bureaucrats moved in. Regulations in Victoria at present require existing or new personal qualifications related to aviation. So much mucking around, so much liability for being charged with illegal activities that you were not aware of, took all the fun and interest out of future drone photography.
The Nanny State cannot and should not be dismissed as a minor trendy personal annoyance. In reality, it is another piece of evidence for a huge Australian problem, notably the loss of national productivity as people choose the mostly non-productive, non-accountable public service to work as bureaucrats whose continuing employment demands invention of more regulation.
That is my top favourite example needing correction.
Geoff S
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It wasn’t too long ago that China used trade embargos/blackmail against Australia for supposed contamination of our products (barley, wine, lobster, timber, major beef exporters, timber and cotton).
Due to our pollies kowtowing to China, they won’t use the same tactic against renewable components as we rely on China for so many other products.
Should we complain to China they would turn on us again, tell us we are being nasty to them and ignore their own failings. As they have the economic power over us that we (the pollies) have handed them, our esteemed leaders will just tug their forelocks and carry on destroying our economic future.
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The onus is on the importer not the manufacturer. Oz lawyers insisted on the legislation to be written this way because the foreign company would not be subject to our laws but an importer CAN be subject to our laws, and if they’ve signed the material declaration statement and it is wrong, then they get the boot in the backside.
Try taking a chinese company to court in Oz. Good luck.
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It will be interesting how this asbestos angle plays out, but BO Bowen has certainly sold us out at COP 30.
Andrew Bolt has effectively called out the Bowen and Albo loons in this video. Bowen has NOT backed his country’s largest exports, while the Albo loon still tells lies about so called drowning islands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N64MwCPIcx0
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In the spirit of “avian-theme” consistency:
“Bowen Loon. (See also” https://petdemy.com/12-types-of-loons-divers-pictures-regions-identification/. See what name association throews up.)
And, of course; the Albotrocity.
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Get blackout Bowen to clean all the bird choppers AND replace all the brake pads with Aussie made replacements. We could finally find a use for him.
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He would make a mess of that, as per all previous employment.
I think the only possible use for Blackout would be as a pipe cleaner dragged through sewerage pipes.
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The answer is simple – we do not need wind turbines, CO2 gas has not, does not and cannot produce heat so it does not make anything hotter. CO2 is a molecule, that is, matter, heat is energy, an entirely different entity. Molecules in isolation do not generate heat, excluding radioactive isotopes, they pass on heat from a heat source to a heat sink by conduction, convection or temporary absorption and re-radiation.
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Bevan, your comment is way too factual and concise. Where’s your emotion and hyperbole? Mate, the oceans are going to boil, the earth is about to catch fire and you’re talking about the physics of CO2 irradiation. Meh. Thomas Sowell describes it very well
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This will be many faceted, so maybe a couple of comments in response, all related to the topic.
When was the last time you climbed a ladder, eh!
Some of the larger turbines here in Australia have lifts inside the tower now, but nearly all of them just have vertical ladders.
So, think about it. You’re the electrician tasked for maintenance on the equipment inside the nacelle atop that huge tower. It’s 90 metres straight up on a vertical ladder, anything up to 320 steps, dressed in your safety gear, and carrying a heavy bag with any and all the tools you may need in the bag.
Here’s the link to a short four and a half minute eye opening video on just that.
Okay, pretend you’re an electrician tasked to work on the generator at a coal fired power plant, floor level, ease of access, ONE turbine generator complex …… and now, anything up to a hundred turbines on top of 90 metre towers, working in a confined space. So, now imagine the maintenance costs at an Industrial wind plant, and hey, wind power is just so cheap eh!
Now imagine you’re tasked with the remedy of this fiasco. All of the above, only in a HazMat suit.
Does the cheapness never stop?
Tony.
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I mentioned that some of the newer and taller wind towers have lifts inside them, and again, remember how cheap wind power is, and surely these super cheap lifts inside the tower are able to carry a number of passengers, say one, maybe two, plus all the necessary equipment, but hey it’s all so cheap, eh!
The newer and larger offshore huge ones have lifts in the main, but they also use helicopters to transport the workers to the top, lower them, so they can access the nacelle from the top, but hey, they only use cheap helicopters.
Now, also keep in mind we have no construction industries any more, so everything has to be brought in from, well, you know where.
So, here’s a link to how they get these items from the docks to the Industrial wind plant site.
And for this job at Wambo, there were 1100 oversize components transported the 315Km distance, each trip eight hours, at night. Look at the article and imagine the cost.
But hey, wind power is so cheap, eh!
Please ….. excuse my cynicism.
And remember, where you read that the height of the structure is 247 metres, that’s to the end of the blade tip, and the blades are 90 metres plus in length.
Tony.
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Helicopters?
At 2 Grand per hour, at least, for a “proper” one.
Guess who is paying for that caper.
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No such thing as cheap helicopters, except maybe a Robinson, but they still cost you.
00
Nah, I prefer my asbestos to be local, like in Latrobe or NSW, or WA. But China!
31
Weak as ….
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The usual weak attempt at deflection (“look over there, it’s a squirrel”), without attempting to address the issue being discussed.
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Is that all you’ve got. ?
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Added to asbestos is the blade erosion problem.
A seventy turbine site will shed twelve tonnes of fibreglass and epoxy resins onto the land (farms). The resin is 33% Bisphenol A and the polyurethane coating contains PFAS.
Blown around food/fibre producing farms. You don’t want fibreglass in the wool, itch factor to the max! These turbines are toxin delivery devices.
Bowen says “farmers get it”. We certainly do.
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Strange how these asbestos brake pad components got past our strict importation laws and regulations??
You can’t import a classic car etc without being warned of the danger of brake pads containing asbestos and the repercussions if it’s found.
It’s almost like these Chinese components were waved through with the magic wand approval and expediency of a high ranking minister or bureaucrat!!
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There is something fundamentally wrong when a Nanny state that has locked you down and tried to force jabs into your arm freely allows components containing asbestos into the country. One moment they are extremely concerned with your health (although some might argue they’re more concerned with looking after the profits of Big Pharma) and shortly after they don’t give a damn.
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It is a completely stupid way to generate electricity because of the damage that can be done to wind turbines by severe weather. They suffer from hail, lightning and most of all, severe wind and turbulence which causes gear box and bearing problems in all makes. In the passage of thunderstorms involved with cold fronts the wind veers 180 degrees instantaneously as the front overtakes the incoming air and no turbine can be designed against that. An even greater problem is the down bursts under thunderstorm cells which would drive all three blades downwards regardless of what any feathering mechanism might do with the blades. It can’t be designed against because 200 k.p.h. plus downbursts are far too great. Most turbines are being built up on ridges and standing hundreds of feet high are in a great place for turbulence over such high ground. Total madness
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That’s what happens when politicians are allowed to make engineering decisions.
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The best part is when they get smote with lightning and burn like a Roman Candle.
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In my opinion, the asbestos in the turbine brake shoes is a small concern compared to the overall assault on Australia’s natural beauty by the eco warriors and renewables fanatics like Chris Bowen who think they have a just cause because fossil fuels cause CO₂ and other gaseous pollutions as biproducts of electrical energy generation. But most of this pollution is invisible. It is also highly controlled to protect the environment. In fact the CO₂ portion is an essential part of the Carbon Cycle via photosynthesis. But, in hard, simple reality, baseload power generators using fossil fuels only take up a small amount of land and have a highly acceptable, reliable energy benefit compared to the loss of our countryside’s natural beauty.
On the other hand, renewable power generators such as wind turbines and solar farms, at best, only producing intermittent power, do so at enormous visual cost to the environment with wind turbines and solar farms a hideous, unsightly wound to Australia’s natural beauty.
The big question for likes of Chris Bowen, the Teals and others who are actively pushing the renewables solution on Australians is: how morally tenable is it to blindly forge ahead with the renewable energy dream at the expense of Australia’s natural beauty when far more benign and reliable forms of energy generation like nuclear and fossil fuel baseload power are available which will have minimal impact on our visual environment?
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Buy Chinese, get disease.
10
Errr ? ….Am i mistaken that the asbestos is in the brake pads of the EMERGENCY BRAKES OF THE LIFTS inside some of the towers ?
If so, they are not a key part of the Turbines, and only used in the event of a lift failure !
And , replacement/ relining of those brake pads should be a minor issue added to the next maintenance visit.
But, im sure Australia will make a huge deal out of this and enable specialist contractors to make millions !
00