Three wind farms shut after collapse
Engineers were working over the weekend to investigate the collapse of a wind turbine which led to three Scottish wind farms being shut.
The 200ft turbine at the Beinn an Tuirc wind farm in Argyll and Bute “bent in half” during heavy winds last week.
ScottishPower, which owns the 26-turbine facility, has closed it while representatives of the company that manufacture Vestas V47 machines investigate the fault.
Dunlaw wind farm, a 26-turbine base near Lauder in the Borders, and the 20-turbine Hare Hill facility, close to New Cumnock, Ayrshire, were also shut down as a precautionary measure.
A spokesman for ScottishPower said it was believed to be the first time a turbine had collapsed in the UK. He said engineers would be trying to find out whether the faulty turbine was in operation at the time of its collapse on Thursday.
Wolf-gerrit Fruh, a senior lecturer in energy engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, described the incident as “extremely unusual”.
Shetland Aerogenerators, which operates three Vestas V47s at Burradale wind farm, near Lerwick, Shetland, has also been told of the problems.
By Damien Henderson
12 November 2007
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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