May 24, 2012
France

Blade snaps off Repower 2MW motorway turbine

Jan Dodd, Windpower Monthly, 24 May 2012, 9:53am | www.windpowermonthly.com 24 May 2012

A 46-metre blade has fallen off a Repower 2MW turbine at a project alongside the A10 motorway in France.

The 52MW Chemin d’Ablis wind farm is located in the Eure-et-Loir department, to the south west of Paris. The other 25 turbines making up the plant are still operating, though are also being checked, according to EDF EN.

The incident, which did not cause any damage, took place early Friday morning. While the winds were strong, they were within the operational limits of the machine, given as 11-90km/h.

Repower and EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN), which owns the plant, are carrying out an investigation to find the cause of the accident.

Commissioned in 2008

The plant, located over a 17-kilometre stretch alongside the A10 motorway, was commissioned in 2008. The 2MW turbines stand in a line stretching 17 kilometres alongside the A10 motorway from Paris to Orléans.

Chemin d’Ablis was the first of the projects selected under the French government’s 2004 tender call for 500MW of onshore wind energy. It was also France’s first to be connected directly to ultra high tension transmission lines.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/05/24/blade-snaps-off-repower-2mw-motorway-turbine/