A wind turbine in north Devon collapsed in January causing some concern for the renewables industry. It is understood to be the first such reported incident in the UK although blades have fallen from turbines in a small number of cases.
A spokeswoman for Dulas the energy company responsible for the erection of the wind turbine said:
“We can reassure the local community that due to the isolated location of the turbine, no one was put at risk and we are currently working hard to establish the precise cause of the incident. Our technical team is one of the most experienced in the UK. They are working alongside the turbine manufacturer to conduct a full root-cause analysis investigation. Our initial assessment suggests the turbine did not catch fire, as has been reported.”
The turbine was relatively small, with a hub height of 24 metres and with a generating capacity of 0.05MW. Paul Thompson, head of policy at the Renewable Energy Association, said:
“It is important not to over-react to this incident, given that there are over 3,500 turbines in the UK with a total capacity of over 5,500MW. One benefit of having that capacity distributed across several thousand small generators is that when one goes offline, it doesn’t have a major impact on the grid. However, that is not to take away from the safety concerns this incident raises, which industry will be looking at very carefully.”
If you have questions on the safety of renewables please contact our renewables team on 01453 800 100
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