October 4, 2021
Germany

Nordex halts more turbines in search for ‘root cause’ after collapse at German wind farm

Nineteen Nordex turbines halted after collapse at German wind farm | OEM takes precaution after N149/4500 machines with exactly same configuration collapsed near Essen, Germany last week | By Bernd Radowitz | Recharge | 4 October 2021 | www.rechargenews.com

Operations at nineteen Nordex N149/4500 wind turbines have been halted, after a turbine with exactly the same configuration had collapsed last week at a wind farm in Germany, the manufacturer told Recharge.

The machine had collapsed for unknown reasons late Wednesday, with the debris of the nacelle and rotor blades crashing into a forest near the Western German city of Essen. No one was injured.

As a precautionary measure, all wind turbines of the same type and with exactly the same configuration have been put out of service temporarily while the company is trying to establish the root cause of the incident, a Nordex press official said.

First machines to secure the accident site are arriving today, and experts from Wednesday on will examine first the turbine tower – 164 metre hybrid model – and then the remains of the rotor.

The turbine had been installed in January, together with another machine of the same type, at the Haltern AV9 wind farm.

Only 19 units of the N149 in the exact same configuration as at the Haltern AV9 wind farm have been operating, all of them in Germany, while another four units are currently under construction, Nordex said.

The machines in question are only a fraction of the more than 1,200 N149 turbines in operation world-wide, the OEM stressed.

OEM takes precaution after N149/4500 machines with exactly same configuration collapsed near Essen, Germany last week |


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2021/10/04/nordex-halts-more-turbines-in-search-for-root-cause-after-collapse-at-german-wind-farm/