January 3, 2014
Nebraska

Turbine blades need replaced

By DeManda McGowen | The Neligh News and Leader | January 2, 2014 | www.nelighnews.com

A number of wind turbines at the Prairie Breeze Wind Energy Center site, near Elgin, will be receiving new blades.

Invenergy, the company who owns Prairie Breeze Wind, released the following statement, “Due to a blade manufacturing defect, and following extensive consultation, GE is replacing a limited number of the turbine blades that will be utilized on turbines at the Prairie Breeze Wind Energy Center.”

The statement continued, “We have confidence in GE’s assessment and in the reliability of the replacement blades, and appreciate the patience of our project landowners, and others in the community, as the blades are delivered to the project site.”

Officials from GE also released a statement about the defective blades, “GE has identified a discrete set of blades that have been impacted by an anomaly in the manufacturing process. In order to ensure the reliability of our wind turbines, we are working with Invenergy to replace blades from the Prairie Breeze wind farm that were a part of this subset. Blades that are not impacted are safe to operate. The quality and reliability of GE turbines is of utmost importance to us and we are proud of our quality track record.”

Prairie Breeze is located on approximately 25,000 acres of private land in Antelope, Boone and Madison counties. About a third of an acre is needed to construct a wind tower. The entire project will span six townships in Antelope County: Lincoln, Logan, Cedar, Grant, Burnett and Oakdale.

It will feature 118 GE 1.7 MW wind turbines. The energy output has been purchased by the Omaha Public Power District under a long-term power purchase agreement.

The project’s general contractor is Blattner Energy and there are currently approximately 200 skilled workers constructing the facility.

It is anticipated there will be 10 to 12 full-time employees working at the plant after it is operational. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2014.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/01/03/turbine-blades-need-replaced/