grounding of wind towers [RE-wrenches]

[Travis Creswell, Ozark Solar]

Hello Kirk,

Your approach appears to be exactly the same as the one I use and I'm quite
happy with it.  We get plenty of lightning and no problems to date.  I
watched a Bergey Excel-S take what appeared to be direct strike to the
nacelle.  It survived with no signs of damage so I doubt it actually took a
direct strike.

The sharps bends underground can't hurt either.

I cannot think of a situation where you don't want the tower ground bonded
to the house ground.  I can think of several examples where customers
complained that they lost their answering machine and other electronics
every time there was a thunderstorm.  An inspection would reveal that the
phone ground was not bonded to the house system ground.  After that was
remedied they never lost another device.

Hope that helped.

Travis Creswell
Ozark Energy Services


-----Original Message-----
From: Kirk Herander [mailto:kirk at vtsolar.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 4:46 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: grounding of wind towers [RE-wrenches]

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Group,
 
We've probably covered this before, but what's the best way to ground a
wind generator tower? I usually drive a rod at the base and all guys,
and ground the tower as well as all guy levels. Then put a lightning
arrestor at the tower base where the splice to larger wire is and
connect the arrestor neutral/gnd to the rod at that location. As most
generator manuals do not discuss grounding and lightning protection, I
wonder if I'm going too far or not far enough. And is it wise to connect
the tower ground to the system (house) ground in all cases? Exceptions?
 
 
Kirk Herander
Vermont Solar Engineering
802.863.1202
fax 802.863-7908
NABCEP(tm) Certified Solar PV Installer
Xantrex Certified Dealer Charter Member
NYSERDA-eligible installer
VT Solar and Wind Partner
 

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