Radzi and the Offshore Wind Turbine Blue Peter Bite


Radzi and the Offshore Wind Turbine

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Transcript


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This is Blue Peter but mini.

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Expect epic adventures, makes,

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bakes, badges, pets,

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presenters and your post.

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We've only got five minutes so get ready for your Blue Peter adventure.

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It's time for me to take on these massive towering turbines.

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I've had to complete some tough sea survival training.

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Let's hope I don't need it as I join the specialist

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engineering team who are going to show me how a wind turbine works.

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We are heading 12 miles out off the coast of Liverpool.

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It is wet and it is very windy.

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The wind farm is approaching,

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so it's time for me to gear up

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and prepare for these super-sized structures.

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We've now just entered the actual wind farm

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and the first thing you notice is just the size of them.

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They are genuinely enormous.

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Each turbine is approximately the height of 26 double-decker buses

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and I love it.

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As our boat approaches the turbine, everything starts to get serious.

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This is by far the most dangerous moment in my whole day,

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the transfer from the boat to the ladder.

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I got a bit confused in training...

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Er, no, the rope.

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..but now it's the real deal. I have to stay ice cool.

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I tell you what, this is a touch different to the swimming pool.

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I need to tread carefully. The rungs are slippy with seaweed

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and the wind is swirling all around me.

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All I can do is keep climbing.

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This is one seriously extreme job.

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And I've made it.

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I'm now 20 metres up.

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Can you hear that?

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Because those are the sounds of blades. Look at the size of them!

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Look how close they are.

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You can almost feel the air resistance touching your cheek.

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It's amazing.

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And in a few seconds I'm going to go and turn those things off.

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This day gets better and better.

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The engineers winch up their equipment

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and then it's time for Paul and me to do a very important job.

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I hope you can hear us. It is incredibly loud in here.

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This turbine can generate over 3,000 kilowatts

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and that amount of electricity,

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we need to turn it off to make sure we're safe.

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You should feel a little wobble when the brakes come on properly.

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Yeah, I can feel it now.

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And there you go. Stopped.

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Turbine is safe and there's no turning back now.

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So this is it.

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120 metres up that way.

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Take me to the top.

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The shaft of this tower is so massive it has its very own lift.

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As I head to the top, let's find out how wind energy works.

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This generator makes electricity by spinning

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a magnet inside a metal coil.

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You might have made a small version of this at school.

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There are many different ways to power a generator.

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In this case, it is using wind power.

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I'm now 80 metres up in the neck of the turbine.

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This is the part which actually pivots the whole top of the turbine

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with the blades and everything

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so it faces the wind in any direction.

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To generate maximum power,

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the turbine's blades must be facing into the wind.

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But because the wind direction changes,

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these turbines need to be able to rotate.

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There's six motors, now, all turning the turbine.

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So you can see this moving quite slowly,

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and automatically this will pick up where the wind is

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and turn it any which way to find the best direction.

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This place is the best.

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Such incredible engineering.

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It's now time to go even higher into the head of the turbine,

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known as the nacelle.

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-Paul, I am in the nacelle.

-Yep. There we are.

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So, what exactly goes on here?

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What we are looking at now is, obviously,

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outside you have got the hub and the blades

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and then that turns this main shaft here,

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and then that goes into the generator,

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which is what produces the electricity.

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It's really similar to...

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It goes from the wind outside, that's free,

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transforms, transforms

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-into everything we need for our homes.

-Yep.

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Now, Paul, a bit of a favour.

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Is there any way we could stand on top of the nacelle?

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We can certainly stand out the back

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on what we call the weather deck,

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but we can't stand on top of this.

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See you on the weather deck.

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This is it.

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The moment I've been waiting for since the start of my training.

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Time to stand at the top of this 120 metre mega-structure.

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Would you take a look at this view.

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The wind energy turned into electricity.

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What an incredible thought that is.

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Genuinely flabbergasting.

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I've learnt so much.

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All I need now to do is just to, erm...

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Well, get down, I guess.

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Guys?

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Anyone?

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Help!

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