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Wind Power News: Accidents
See also: Wind Turbine Accident data (worldwide) at Scotland Against Spin
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational mission to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law. The original articles, links to which are provided, may have additional links and photos and other media that were not included here.
Renewable energy in the dock in Spain after blackout
Fierce debate raged in Spain on Wednesday over the role its reliance on renewable energy may have had in this week’s blackout which disrupted millions of lives, though officials sought to downplay any potential link. “The lack of nuclear power stations and the ‘boom’ in renewables have brought the electricity grid to its knees,” conservative newspaper ABC headlined on its front page. Rival daily El Mundo wrote that “warnings about renewables over the last five years” had been “ignored”. Conservative . . . Complete story »
Iowa farmer sues company, alleging three wind-turbine fires damaged his crops
A Cedar County farmer is suing a manufacturer of wind turbines, alleging three turbine fires scattered debris over hundreds of acres of land, damaging his crops. Alan Weets of Mechanicsville is suing the Chicago-based company Nordex USA, which does business as Acciona Windpower North America and Anchor Wind, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Weets alleges that in 2010, he entered into an agreement with Acciona that gave the company an easement on his property for . . . Complete story »
Wind turbine collapses at Hwasun’s Geumsungsan Plant
A nearby resident thought it ‘was an earthquake’. A wind turbine collapsed at the Geumsungsan Wind Power Plant in Hwasun-gun, Jeonnam. According to Hwasun-gun, around 2:50 a.m. on the 21st, one 4.7-megawatt (MW) wind turbine, installed along the ridge of Hwacheong Mountain in Uchi-ri, Doam-myeon, Hwasun-gun, broke at the middle pole and fell. There were no casualties as it occurred in a restricted area. The wind turbine that had the accident was the 11th of the 11 turbines in the . . . Complete story »
Crew injured as offshore support vessel hits North Sea wind turbine
The Royal Dutch Sea Rescue Society reports it evacuated two injured crewmembers from a privately operated offshore standby safety vessel that had hit the base off an offshore wind turbine in the North Sea. There is no word on the condition of the two crewmembers who were taken to a hospital in the Netherlands while the media reports indicate a third crewmember also voluntarily went to the hospital after the vessel returned to port. The call for the medical evacuation . . . Complete story »
19-year-old Wyoming wind technician dies in fall from turbine
Anna Cobb will always remember the kindness that her nephew Liam Cobb, 19, possessed, and his curiosity about how all things worked in the world. “He was just a good member of society,” she said. Liam Cobb died Wednesday while working on a wind turbine near Medicine Bow in Carbon County. Anna Cobb said her nephew fell while working his job as a wind turbine technician. “It’s just kind of devastating when you see a young person pass away,” she . . . Complete story »
Truck carrying wind turbine part veers off road in western Lithuania
A truck carrying a wind turbine component veered off the Šiauliai-Palanga road near Plungė, in western Lithuania, on Friday. According to Via Lietuva, the heavy-duty vehicle overturned on the roadside at around the 84th kilometer of the highway. It was transporting a wind turbine tower section with a diameter of six meters. The state road operator said the truck, equipped with a special trailer, was hauling the cargo from the port of Klaipėda to Kelmė District. It added that traffic . . . Complete story »
Un bateau de pêche percute une éolienne au large du Croisic, l’équipage secouru par la SNSM
[Fishing vessel strikes wind turbine, crew rescued as water poured into engine room.] Un chalutier a percuté une éolienne, dans la nuit du 3 au 4 avril, dans le parc éolien en mer de Saint-Nazaire. L’équipage a alerté le Cross (Centre régional opérationnel de surveillance et de sauvetage) qui a déclenché des patrouilles de la SNSM du Croisic et de La Turballe pour leur porter secours. Grosse frayeur à bord du bateau de pêche « Lola Julia » qui naviguait au niveau . . . Complete story »
Five dead after fall during wind turbine installation
Government report blames ‘chaotic and ineffective’ management of project. Five workers died while installing a Goldwind wind turbine in China after the platform they were standing on collapsed, with a local authority having now issued a damning report into the incident, which prompted multiple arrests. The incident occurred last year while workers were installing the concrete tower for a Goldwind GWH 204/6.25MW turbine at a 150MW project in China’s eastern Anhui Province. The EPC general contractor for the 24-turbine project . . . Complete story »
Man was run over and killed by dump truck during construction of “Wind Parks of Ukraine”
[The accident in Transcarpathia occurred in September 2023, but the public was not informed about it.] На Закарпатті під час спорудження першого вітряка “Вітряних парків України” самоскид задавив чоловіка Попри те, що трагедія сталася ще у вересні 2023 року, ні влада, ні правоохоронці не повідомили про неї громадськість. Воловецький районний суд виніс вирок колишньому працівнику підприємства «Агрошляхбуд» Івану Калитичу, який під час облаштування котловану під фундамент вітроелектростанції «Нижні Ворота-1» на смерть збив пішохода. За скоєне водієві самоскида призначили 2 роки . . . Complete story »
Vestas turbine blade breaks at 130MW Sormarkfjellet wind farm in Norway
Operations at the 130MW Sormarkfjellet wind farm in Norway have been halted after a turbine blade partially fell to the ground, energy company Aneo confirmed. The wind farm, located in Osen and Flatanger, was closed following the incident, with no turbines currently operating. An Aneo spokesperson reported that a series of alarms went off in the control room on Saturday afternoon. “We sent a team out to carry out a visual inspection and it was clear that one blade has . . . Complete story »
