December 2, 2009
England

Wind brings down turbine

Newquay Voice, www.newquayvoice.co.uk 02/12/2009

The eco-dream of a village school turned into a Friday 13th nightmare when high winds destroyed their wind turbine.
Two blades flew off from the 15m tall turbine in Gorran School’s playing field during the bad weather earlier this month. The turbine was part of the school’s £53,000 plan to generate its own electricity,
On the afternoon of Friday, November 13, the school was advised to turn on the brakes to stop the turbine, but the brakes failed, causing two blades to detach in the early hours of Saturday morning.
A concerned parent said: “Thank God it happened when the children were not out on the field. Looking at the size and weight of those rotor blades, I dread to think what would have happened if they had snapped off while they were there.”
The turbine has now been lowered and the manufacturers, Proven, will be visiting the school next week.
Richard Caldow, Operations Manager at Proven Energy. said: “Proven Energy is aware of a turbine acting outside normal operations during the weekend’s extreme storms. We are working closely with the school to investigate the reasons for this and will give an update as soon as we complete this review.”
This is not the first problem Gorran School have experienced with their wind turbine. Only seven months after it was erected in July 2008 it went on the blink.
It was repaired by the manufacturers at the time at no cost to the school, and they were reimbursed for the lost generation while the turbine was not working.
When working correctly, the turbine is capable of generating 48,000kWh of electricity, meeting around 90 per cent of the school’s electricity needs.
Funding for the turbine came from EDF Energy’s Green Fund, the Low Carbon Building Programme, the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Beauty Partnership and the Eco Schools’ Grant Programme.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2009/12/02/wind-brings-down-turbine/