January 17, 2015
Denmark
Denmark
Blades fly off runaway wind turbine
The Local | Published: 16 Jan 2015 | www.thelocal.dk
The Local | Published: 16 Jan 2015 | www.thelocal.dk
The blades and gearbox have been spun off a wind turbine in western Jutland after a malfunction allowed it to reach to dangerous speeds in high winds.
“There was a loud bang and then one of the blades span off, and shortly afterwards the the gearbox’s housing fell to the ground,” Henrik Nielsen, one of the officials at the scene, told Denmark’s TV Midvest. “The wings splintered, and fragments and smoke reached as far as 35 meters away from the turbine.”
No one was hurt due to a 100m safety zone which local police had enforced around the turbine ever since it first ran out of control on Thursday afternoon. Several turbine maintenance specialists had tried to bring the turbine under control, but in the end judged it too dangerous to approach.
“We cannot get close to it until the wind dies down,” Oluf Jakobsen, from the local Morsø municipality explained on Friday morning. “There’s nothing we can do but sit and wait for the outcome.”
The blades and gearbox lying besides the wind turbine. Photo: Marlene Eyde/TV Midvest
Photos: Anne Mette Johansen
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/01/17/blades-fly-off-runaway-wind-turbine/