Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 September 11

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September 11

Unknown contraption

What is this thing for?

I'm intrigued by a large machine which has appeared in a field adjacent to the M25 motorway near Kings Langley in Hertfordshire to the northwest of London. The field has been landscaped by a green energy company, Renewable Energy Systems, which also has a middle-sized wind turbine on the site. Apologies for the poor quality images which were taken from a moving car (I wasn't driving!). At a guess, it's about 2 metres tall. Any ideas? Alansplodge (talk) 16:38, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Complete guess; could it be either a sonic or laser bird scarer? --Ykraps (talk) 16:49, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

My first guess is that it is a water pump, which can be about any size. The riddle is, what would the energy company use such a huge pump for?  --Lambiam 16:53, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

It appears to be a part of either an electric motor or a dynamo or alternator of some sort, likely one of the latter two, given that this is on property owned by a windfarm company? My guess is that this is a piece of equipment someone dropped off for future use either to build a new wind turbine, or to replace a faulty part on an existing one. --Jayron32 16:54, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Support images for my guess: See here for one installed in a wind turbine, and here for a much larger design for likely a very large wind turbine and here (the green thing). It's the generator from the wind turbine, I believe. --Jayron32 16:57, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Well done Jayron, that seems to be it. The intention seems to be to create a sort of eco park, so it may be intended to educate visitors. Alansplodge (talk) 17:07, 11 September 2023 (UTC)

Resolved