June 24, 2015
Germany

Blade breaks at Nordsee Ost

reNEWS | 24/06/2015 | renews.biz/

RWE Innogy has temporarily shut down its 295MW Nordsee Ost wind farm in the German North Sea last Friday after a blade broke on one of the project’s 48 Senvion 6.2M126 turbines. No one was hurt by the incident.

The turbine number 17 that was affected has been in trial operation and not yet handed over to RWE. Nordsee Ost blades are 61.5 metres long and weigh around 22 tonnes.

The blade “almost completely” broke off, a spokesperson for Senvion said.

Several vessels and a helicopter were involved in the recovery of blade parts. The pieces found were brought to Senvion’s production site in Bremerhaven.

A team of manufacturer Senvion and developer and operator RWE is investigating the incident at the project site some 35km north of Heligoland.

On the basis of preliminary results of the investigation, Senvion assumes that this is a solitary incident. “This has never happened at any Senvion turbine” a spokesperson to the manufacturer said. The manufacturer is not aware of similar accidents.

Around half of the turbines have meanwhile resumed operations.

The wind farm was officially inaugurated in early May. RWE’s installation vessels Victoria Mathias and Friedrich Ernestine were deployed and erected the final turbine late last year.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/06/24/blade-breaks-at-nordsee-ost/