Environment
Wind Turbines Can Act Like Big Magnets for Lightning
They can be hit by bolts every three seconds for hours-long periods, even if thunderstorms are not nearby.
There are many surprising things about wind turbines: the way they can morph into immense fireballs, their ability to fly, the huge number of bats they kill. Perhaps it's not so astonishing, then, to learn that they can act like giant lightning-firing machine guns, too.
Turbines's hidden lives as lightning factories was investigated recently by Spanish and American researchers who monitored the massive structures with high-speed video and a "3-D Lightning Mapping Array." They found that in certain cases, the turbines would get hit as frequently as a bolt every three seconds, and that this crackling fusillade could last anywhere between a couple minutes to hours. Here's some of their footage: