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This is Blue Peter but mini. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:08 | |
Expect epic adventures, makes, | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
bakes, badges, pets, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
presenters and your post. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
We've only got five minutes so get ready for your Blue Peter adventure. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
It's time for me to take on these massive towering turbines. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
I've had to complete some tough sea survival training. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
Let's hope I don't need it as I join the specialist | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
engineering team who are going to show me how a wind turbine works. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:38 | |
We are heading 12 miles out off the coast of Liverpool. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
It is wet and it is very windy. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
The wind farm is approaching, | 0:21:49 | 0:21:51 | |
so it's time for me to gear up | 0:21:51 | 0:21:53 | |
and prepare for these super-sized structures. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
We've now just entered the actual wind farm | 0:21:56 | 0:21:59 | |
and the first thing you notice is just the size of them. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:03 | |
They are genuinely enormous. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
Each turbine is approximately the height of 26 double-decker buses | 0:22:07 | 0:22:13 | |
and I love it. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
As our boat approaches the turbine, everything starts to get serious. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:20 | |
This is by far the most dangerous moment in my whole day, | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
the transfer from the boat to the ladder. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
I got a bit confused in training... | 0:22:28 | 0:22:30 | |
Er, no, the rope. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
..but now it's the real deal. I have to stay ice cool. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:36 | |
I tell you what, this is a touch different to the swimming pool. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
I need to tread carefully. The rungs are slippy with seaweed | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
and the wind is swirling all around me. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
All I can do is keep climbing. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
This is one seriously extreme job. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
And I've made it. | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
I'm now 20 metres up. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:02 | |
Can you hear that? | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
Because those are the sounds of blades. Look at the size of them! | 0:23:06 | 0:23:10 | |
Look how close they are. | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
You can almost feel the air resistance touching your cheek. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
It's amazing. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:17 | |
And in a few seconds I'm going to go and turn those things off. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:20 | |
This day gets better and better. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
The engineers winch up their equipment | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
and then it's time for Paul and me to do a very important job. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
I hope you can hear us. It is incredibly loud in here. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:32 | |
This turbine can generate over 3,000 kilowatts | 0:23:32 | 0:23:37 | |
and that amount of electricity, | 0:23:37 | 0:23:38 | |
we need to turn it off to make sure we're safe. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
You should feel a little wobble when the brakes come on properly. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
Yeah, I can feel it now. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:45 | |
And there you go. Stopped. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:49 | |
Turbine is safe and there's no turning back now. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:52 | |
So this is it. | 0:23:52 | 0:23:54 | |
120 metres up that way. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
Take me to the top. | 0:23:57 | 0:23:59 | |
The shaft of this tower is so massive it has its very own lift. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:05 | |
As I head to the top, let's find out how wind energy works. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:08 | |
This generator makes electricity by spinning | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
a magnet inside a metal coil. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:14 | |
You might have made a small version of this at school. | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
There are many different ways to power a generator. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
In this case, it is using wind power. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
I'm now 80 metres up in the neck of the turbine. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
This is the part which actually pivots the whole top of the turbine | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
with the blades and everything | 0:24:33 | 0:24:34 | |
so it faces the wind in any direction. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
To generate maximum power, | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
the turbine's blades must be facing into the wind. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
But because the wind direction changes, | 0:24:42 | 0:24:44 | |
these turbines need to be able to rotate. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
There's six motors, now, all turning the turbine. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
So you can see this moving quite slowly, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
and automatically this will pick up where the wind is | 0:24:53 | 0:24:58 | |
and turn it any which way to find the best direction. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
This place is the best. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
Such incredible engineering. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:05 | |
It's now time to go even higher into the head of the turbine, | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
known as the nacelle. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:10 | |
-Paul, I am in the nacelle. -Yep. There we are. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:16 | |
So, what exactly goes on here? | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
What we are looking at now is, obviously, | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
outside you have got the hub and the blades | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
and then that turns this main shaft here, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
and then that goes into the generator, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
which is what produces the electricity. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
It's really similar to... | 0:25:31 | 0:25:32 | |
It goes from the wind outside, that's free, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
transforms, transforms | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
-into everything we need for our homes. -Yep. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
Now, Paul, a bit of a favour. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
Is there any way we could stand on top of the nacelle? | 0:25:42 | 0:25:47 | |
We can certainly stand out the back | 0:25:47 | 0:25:48 | |
on what we call the weather deck, | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
but we can't stand on top of this. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
See you on the weather deck. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:53 | |
This is it. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:56 | |
The moment I've been waiting for since the start of my training. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
Time to stand at the top of this 120 metre mega-structure. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:05 | |
Would you take a look at this view. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:08 | |
The wind energy turned into electricity. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
What an incredible thought that is. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:16 | |
Genuinely flabbergasting. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
I've learnt so much. | 0:26:19 | 0:26:20 | |
All I need now to do is just to, erm... | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
Well, get down, I guess. | 0:26:22 | 0:26:23 | |
Guys? | 0:26:23 | 0:26:24 | |
Anyone? | 0:26:24 | 0:26:26 | |
Help! | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 |