On Jan. 26, a Vestas blade failure occurred at a wind farm in Northern Jutland, Denmark. Vestas spokesperson Matthew Whitby tells NAW that the incident involved a single V90-3.0 MW wind turbine, which uses 44-meter-long blades. Two of the blades were damaged as a result of the incident, but no one was injured.
A developer named Hojstrup Vind ApS owns the wind farm, which features four V90-3.0 MW turbines. The machines were commissioned in December 2013, and Whitby says the other three turbines are operating normally.
‘As a result of the incident, the [affected] turbine was shut down," he says. "Vestas service technicians are present at the site, and an investigation into the cause of the incident is under way."
Whitby notes there were no high wind speeds when the blade failure occurred. "Until the investigation is completed, it will not be possible to determine the root cause of the incident."
He acknowledges that although Vestas has experienced blade failures in the past, "we must underline that we have installed over 50,000 turbines around the world, and incidents such as this are rare."
