An investigation is underway after a wind turbine on Wolfe Island lost a blade earlier this week.
TransAlta, the operator of the island’s more than 80 wind turbines, confirmed the failure occurred during high wind conditions.
“The site was immediately taken offline and the area around the turbine secured,” the company said in a statement. “There were no injuries reported. TransAlta has activated its incident management process, and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the failure.”
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Frontenac Islands Mayor Judy Greenwood-Speers noted that the blade fell directly to the base of the turbine, avoiding any injuries or property damage. She emphasized that she has “no concern at all” regarding immediate safety for residents.
However, the mayor acknowledged she has been largely left in the dark and is eager to learn the root cause.
“I’m more curious to find out whether it was metal fatigue or just a lack of security from the maintenance piece,” she said.
This marks the first such incident at the site, which has been operating for nearly two decades.
“That’s the very first time out of 86 turbines … nearly 20 years at this site,” Greenwood-Speers added.
Despite the failure, the mayor stated she has no issues with TransAlta’s overall operations on the island.
As a precaution, the entire wind farm has been shut down while the company conducts its investigation. TransAlta stated it will provide updates as more information becomes available.
More failures will occur over time. And 86 turbines @.5 billion. Only half of that is for the actual turbine hardware. Rest is profit. Tell me how these produce .5 B back to the grid. Waste of environment and taxes.
Junk
I’m glad to see them self destruct. Unfortunately my nephew may lose his full time job maintaining them all day every day and making lots of money lol. These turbines are the ultimate white elephants.
Yahoo!
Can’t wait for the rest of the BIRD BLENDERS to destroy themselves.
They said they found the broken blade at the base of the turbine, what they didn’t tell you was that they probably found 50 dead birds at the base of the turbine too.