August 21, 2011
North Dakota

Brand new blade

Minot Daily News, www.minotdailynews.com 21 August 2011

Repairs are being made to a wind tower just south of Minot that was damaged this spring.

Officially known as turbine B-26, one of the blades on the turbine failed in April.

Daryl Hill, media relations supervisor at Basin Electric Cooperative in Bismarck, said plans were to have the blade replaced in June, but with the extremely wet weather, the roads and surrounding area were too soft to support the heavy cranes and trucks needed for repairs.

On Aug. 9, a new blade was attached to the tower’s hub assembly, Hill said. He said the wind tower isn’t quite ready for operation yet because some repairs need to be completed on the other two blades that were slightly damaged when the blade broke.

He said the other two blades have some “nicks” on them that should be patched before returning them to service. He said completing those repairs involves getting a “sky climber” so scaffolding can be attached to each of the blades and workers can complete the repairs.

Now that the broken blade is “on the ground,” Hill said it can be analyzed to hopefully determine what caused it to fail.

The tower is expected to be back in operation shortly, he said.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/21/brand-new-blade/