December 23, 2023
General News

Somerton wind turbine damaged during Storm Elin

13th December 2023, bbc.com

Part of a wind turbine blade broke off and landed in a field amid strong winds during Storm Elin.

ANDREW TURNER/BBC

The turbine is one of a pair built in 2015 at Blood Hill in Somerton near Great Yarmouth.

Part of the structure landed about 20m (65ft) from the turbine tower on Saturday. The blade shows signs of damage.

ANDREW TURNER/BBC

The turbine was managed by E.on until 2012, when it was sold. The BBC has attempted to identify the owner.

A set of three turbine blades are in the field near the base of the tower, but are covered in green algae with long grass around them.

Clive Hopkins, 65, from Pakefield near Lowestoft, travelled up to see the damage after hearing about it.

“We’ve had storm, after storm, after storm,” he said.

“The jet stream has been pretty unkind though it’s been mild,” he said. “But sooner or later these things do have a sell-by date, and perhaps now they need to look at all the sails and replace as many as possible.

“It’s scary to think we’ve got a much bigger one in Lowestoft called Gulliver. If we were to lose a piece of blade that size where it’s heavily populated, it could do all sorts of damage.

“I’m sure we’ve done all that [safety reviews] but there’s nothing we can do about the weather.

“We are always going to get named storms but possibly out at sea they’re not quite such a danger to Joe Public, where in built up areas, like the one at Lowestoft, could well be.”

Blood Hill wind farm was the first built in Norfolk and among the first to become operational in England in 1992.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2023/12/23/somerton-wind-turbine-damaged-during-storm-elin/