Please take a minute to help keep us online.
To preserve our independence, we are not funded by any political or industry groups, and we do not host ads. Wind Watch relies entirely on user donations, every penny of which goes directly to keeping the web site running.
Stripe:  |
PayPal/Venmo:  |
DTE halts wind park work as probe begins
Credit: By NICHOLAS GRENKE, Tribune Staff Writer | Huron Daily Tribune | November 12, 2013 | www.michigansthumb.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
CHANDLER TOWNSHIP – Work at DTE’s Echo Wind Park has stopped as the energy company tries to find the reason why a wind turbine blade broke at the park last week.
“There’s not a timetable on this,” DTE spokesman Scott Simons said Monday. “We’re not going to put anyone or anything at risk until we get to the bottom of this.
The 60 turbines that have already been constructed at the planned 70-turbine wind park will not operate until a reason for the recent malfunction at North Farver Road near the intersection of Dunn Road is discovered. DTE had been generating power from each of the turbines after they were completed, according to an Oct. 23 news release.
In addition, Simons said that construction on the remaining 10 turbines will stop. The remaining turbines are in various stages of completion. There is no plan in place for the temporary workers who are staying in Huron County building the turbines.
Construction on the Echo Wind Park was scheduled to be finished by the end of November.
“We’re not going to continue construction until we know what happened,” Simons said. “They’re not going to start back up until we know what went wrong.
Completed wind turbine parks in the area will continue to be operational.
The investigation into the broken turbine blade could take months. In March, a DTE-owned wind turbine in Sigel Township broke and the final analysis on the cause wasn’t presented to Huron County Commissioners until an October meeting.
DTE project manager Dennis Buda said at that meeting that the blade in Sigel Township failed because of a manufacturer’s defect due to uneven heating conditions at a production plant in Brazil.
Simons said that DTE is taking the broken wind turbine blade very seriously.
“We’re working with GE engineers; it’s still a work in progress,” he said.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
| Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
(via Stripe) |
(via Paypal) |
Share:
[ Short URL: https://wind-watch.org/news/?p=58631 ]
