A rotor blade of a Siemens SWT-2.3-108 wind turbine broke off at the Eclipse wind farm, a 200 MW project located in Guthrie and Audubon counties, Iowa.
According to a statement from Siemens, a company service technician discovered the rotor blade on the ground Friday, and there were no injuries. Siemens says such an incident affecting this blade type has never happened, and the company has deployed a team to investigate the blade's production, installation, commissioning and service.
"We don't yet know why this happened, but we are committed to conducting a detailed engineering analysis to determine the root cause," Siemens says. "At the same time, we are working with our customer [to] replace the broken blade."
MidAmerican Energy Co., which owns the Eclipse wind farm, adds that the downed blade was removed over the weekend and the company is collaborating with Siemens.
