Posh protesters cause airport mayhem | The Sun |News

THOUSANDS of ordinary families faced airport hell yesterday — as well-heeled youngsters blockaded Stansted’s runway in a demo over climate change.

The protesters — whose Plane Stupid campaign counts sons and daughters of peers among activists — chained themselves together to halt flights.

Ice-Tossing Turbines: They can only throw "javelins" several hundred meters

One local businessman described the ice shards as “javelins” coming off the blades.
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But the industry denies that “ice-throwing” — another concern surrounding wind power — is a problem. “Ice can end up at places other than exactly at the base of the turbine, but it’s a myth that a turbine will (and can) operate at high speed with ice on it and fling ice for miles,” said Ron Stimmel of the American Wind Energy Association, in an e-mail message.

Just as an airplane will not be able to fly with too much ice on its wings, Mr. Stimmel said, wind turbines are designed to stop or shut off automatically, he said, when they sense the extra weight of ice.

The American Wind Energy Association has posted a brief on the subject, and also discusses the issue in its handbook for siting new wind projects.

But a 2006 publication by G.E. Energy, a maker of large wind turbines, warns that “rotating turbine blades may propel ice fragments some distance from the turbine — up to several hundred meters if conditions are right.”