Accidents
Several cases occurred where the housings of wind turbines caught fire. As housings are normally out of the range of standard fire extinguishing equipment, it is nearly impossible to extinguish such fires on older turbine units which lack fire suppression systems. In several cases one or more blades were damaged or torn away. In 2010 70 mph (110 km/h; 61 kn) storm winds damaged some blades, prompting blade removal and inspection of all 25 wind turbines in Campo Indian Reservation in the US State of California. Several wind turbines also collapsed.
| Place | Date | Type | Nacelle height | Rotor dia. | Year built | Reason | Damage and casualties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellenstedt, Germany | October 19, 2002 | ||||||
| Schneebergerhof, Germany | December 20, 2003 | Vestas V80 | 80 m | ||||
| Wasco, Oregon, USA | August 25, 2007 | Siemens | Human error: turbine restarted while blades were locked in maximum wind-resistance mode | 1 worker killed, 1 injured | |||
| Stobart Mill, UK | December 30, 2007 | Vestas | 1982 | ||||
| Hornslet, Denmark | February 22, 2008 | Nordtank NKT 600-180 | 44.5 m | 43 m | 1996 | Brake failure | |
| Searsburg, Vermont, USA | October 16, 2008 | Zond Z-P40-FS | 1997 | Rotor blade collided with tower during strong wind and destroyed it | |||
| Altona, New York, USA | March 6, 2009 | Lightning likely | |||||
| Fenner, New York, USA | December 27, 2009 | ||||||
| Kirtorf, Germany | June 19, 2011 | DeWind D-6 | 68.5 m | 62 m | 2001 | ||
| Ayrshire, Scotland | December 8, 2011 |
Read more about this topic: Wind Turbine
Famous quotes containing the word accidents:
“The day-laborer is reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, yet he is saturated with the laws of the world. His measures are the hours; morning and night, solstice and equinox, geometry, astronomy, and all the lovely accidents of nature play through his mind.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)