LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]



Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Wind turbine with test device loses part of a blade 

Credit:  By M.T. Fernandes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | Dundalk Herald | Tue., July 6, 2021 | www.thestar.com ~~

Part of a blade on a wind turbine just off Grey County Road 8 southwest of Dundalk broke and fell to the earth last Wednesday morning.

Although the company is still investigating the cause, Megan Hunter of Capstone Infrastructure told the Dundalk Herald that there was a special circumstance.

“We can confirm that we were testing an aerodynamic improvement device on the turbine in question,” she said in an email reply.

The test device had been placed only on the one turbine, she said. There were no injuries and the only damage was to the turbine itself in the incident at about 9:40 a.m. on Jun. 30.

The turbine “experienced severe damage resulting in part of one of the blades breaking and falling to the ground,” she said.

The hub diameter of the turbines is 100 metres. The initial open house for the proposed Skyway 8 took place in 2008 under leadership of Windrush Energy. But before the project was built, the approvals changed hands. It was commissioned in 2014 by Capstone Energy.

After the incident, staff controlled the site with round-the-clock security through the weekend. Grey County closed the road temporarily as Capstone assessed and worked on the site.

“All of the turbines at the Skyway 8 facility were taken offline, inspected, and confirmed to have no increased risk before being returned to service.”

Ms Hunter said that safety was the company’s priority, and that as of Friday, there was “no conclusive information indicating the specific cause of the failure” and there would be a formal investigation.

Adding a device called a “Power Cone” was approved in the winter of 2019, by an amendment to the Environmental Compliance for Skyway 8.

Biome Renewables is the developer of the turbine retrofit, which has attracted a lot of interest from the industry.

Information provided by Natural Resources Canada on the Skyway 8 pilot project states that the project received funding of about $1.9 million dollars under the Energy Innovation Program.

The device is a much smaller three-pronged device added at the hub which is intended to channel the wind onto the blades addressing a problem called “root leakage.”

The company’s website says the device will reduce noise and also increase power output by 13 percent. It is described as at the stage of a “market-ready pilot project.”

That level of interest and funding mean the continued investigation of the incident to track down the root cause of the event.

In the meantime, pictures of the incident had already started to circulate among groups with concerns about wind power.

The published regulations require a minimum setback distance from roadways of the blade length plus 10 metres.

Source:  By M.T. Fernandes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | Dundalk Herald | Tue., July 6, 2021 | www.thestar.com

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share

Tag: Accidents


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon