July 21, 2021
Ontario

More details on Skyway 8 wind turbine that suffered severe damage

By M.T. Fernandes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter | Dundalk Herald | Tue., July 20, 2021 | www.thestar.com

More details are available on when the test device was installed on the Skyway 8 turbine which suffered severe damage recently.

A media contact for Capstone said that the device was installed the week of Mar. 15, when cranes were onsite at County Rd. 8 southwest of Dundalk.

The company had received an extension on the Ontario EA approval for testing the Powercone device, Megan Hunter said in an email. The EA when first granted originally was to start earlier and be completed in June, as was mentioned in an earlier story.

But the extension of the EA would have allowed testing to continue through until May 30, 2022.

The pilot was a test of a Canadian product called PowerCone, which developers say could increase efficiency of turbines by about 12 to 15 percent.

When asked whether any future tests would be done on a turbine set further back from the road, she said that “no further testing is being contemplated at this time, nor will it be, until the investigation is completed.”

Ms Hunter said that a formal investigation is being done by a third party as well as by the company into what caused the blade to fail. It is not yet known whether it is related to the test device.

In response to a question about any safety concerns relating to the testing, she responded that “at no time was there any danger to road users from the turbine itself.”

“The primary safety concern addressed by the closure of Grey County Road 8 over the weekend,” she wrote in an email replay to the Dundalk Herald, “was to provide enhanced access to the site for our response teams while removing risk of any traffic incidents from onlookers stopping on the side of the road and entering the field to approach the turbine.”

As of Sunday afternoon, an occupied car was parked blocking the entrance to the turbine.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2021/07/21/more-details-on-skyway-8-wind-turbine-that-suffered-severe-damage/