June 2, 2012
Ohio

Crews work to repair damaged wind turbine

By Megan Trent, Indiana's NewsCenter | www.indianasnewscenter.com 1 June 2012

Investigators are close to determining exactly what damaged a wind turbine at the Timber Road II wind farm in Paulding County, Ohio, in late April according to a spokesperson for the owners of the project, EDP Renewables.

Since April 24th, all 55 of the wind turbines on the wind farm have sat quietly in the fields, blades stopped, as crews try to determine exactly what damaged two blades off a turbine, sending debris raining down on the field below.

The wind farm is owned by EDP Renewables. The company also runs a few dozen similar projects across the country. However, the blades are still under warranty with Vestas, and they’ll be paying for the bulk of the repairs.

On Friday, crews were busy working on the turbine, and EDP officials say the entire project will be started up again once the repairs are complete, an exact cause for the damage is known, and they’re sure similar damage won’t happen again with any other turbines.

At the time of the incident, EDP officials told Indiana’s NewsCenter they did not believe wind was the cause of the damage.

In the meantime, the Chairman of the Paulding County Commissioners, Tony Zartman, says the county has an open line of communication with EDP.

“I feel very safe in saying that EDP Renewables is bound and determined to make sure that nobody gets hurt from their farm, their project,” says Zartman. “They’re doing the best that they can at investigating the cause and they’re going to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Commissioner Zartman says the suspended energy production hasn’t cost the county or residents any revenue.

“A lot of the landowners were worried that their lease payments would stop, because they basically shut the farm down, but that’s not the case. The company is under contract to continue those lease payments. They’re obligated, and the same holds true for the property taxes as well.”

EDP officials say they haven’t stopped to calculate the loss to the company yet, because they’ve been too focused on their number one priority – making sure the problem gets fixed.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/06/02/crews-work-to-repair-damaged-wind-turbine/