A wind turbine has been switched off and an investigation launched after its frozen blades showered nearby homes with large chunks of ice. Residents complained when the 260ft wind generator began hurling shards of ice, some measuring two feet long, after the cold snap over the weekend.

The worker is an employee of Vestas, a wind turbine manufacturer. A spokesman with that company said the incident was under investigation and details would be provided when they became available. Olavarria said the worker was outside the turbine in front of its nose when the explosion and fire occurred. It's not clear what caused the explosion or what burned, but the turbines do have lubricating oil inside, she said.

Residents were left fearing for their safety after shards of melting ice fell on homes and gardens from the blades of a giant wind turbine. For about four hours people in King's Dyke, Whittlesey, had to take cover as huge lumps - some two feet long - showered them from the 80 metre high tower on Saturday morning. Resident Peter Randall, whose son's house lies a stone's throw away from the turbine, said: "Somebody is going to get killed. There was huge lumps of ice shooting off and landing everywhere.

An explosion and fire at a wind farm under construction in northeast Nebraska has injured three workers. One man, who was atop a tower when a turbine exploded, received first- and second-degree burns in the fire Tuesday morning. Two others, who were nearby, were treated for smoke inhalation and released.

When the Bureau County Board voted to exclude a certain type of wind turbine from consideration for seven Walnut Ridge sites, the company was understandably concerned. ...On Nov. 17, Suzlon issued a statement regarding the S88. According to the statement, the problem with the S88 near Buda was with the V2 version, which has since been replaced with the V3 version.

A wind farm worker is okay following a crane accident Sunday morning. A Winnebago County Sheriff's report confirms Billy Cody was trapped in a crane at the construction site located between Forest City and Thompson.

A Sunday morning leak in a paint thinner pipe at the Vestas Blades paint building allowed about 20 to 30 gallons of the flammable material to be spilled. ...The spill is believed to be the first of its kind at the $60 million wind turbine blade manufacturing plant located on an 80-acre site in the Great Western Industrial Park.

The setbacks in the proposed Enfield wind law are not large enough, according to a letter from the Tompkins County Planning Department to Town Supervisor Frank Podufalski, but following that advice could kill the wind farm proposal for a site near Connecticut Hill. The planning department recommends increased setbacks between property lines and the wind towers ...If the Enfield Town Board does not adopt the recommendations, it will need a supermajority, which means four votes on the five-member board, to pass the proposal into law.

One of the largest businesses in town is working toward going green. Decas Cranberry Company in South Carver has proposed installing a test tower to measure the wind on the property in an effort to determine whether a wind turbine would be a viable future energy source for the company.

A falling blade from a wind turbine near Wyanet in Bureau County last week has resulted in some fears, but one area school says there is no need to worry. The blade was 140 feet long and weighed 6 tons. Fortunately, it landed in a corn field and there were no injuries or damage to property. The Sherrard School District has just erected a wind turbine at its junior high and high school campus in lower Rock Island County, but there is no connection to the one that broke in Wyanet last Wednesday.

When it came time to start repairing a wind turbine at the ethanol plant on Oct. 15, the project had to be put on hold. ..."The blade has been cracked all summer. It's been frustrating," says Dan Moore, director of project development for Renewable Energy Solutions. When the broken blade was discovered, the turbine furthest from the ethanol plant had to be shut down. All three blades needed to be replaced, says Moore, because we couldn't find one to match the other two.

When we reported on the videotaped Vestas turbine explosion, the wind energy watchdog group Industrial Wind Action Group had a list of 36 turbine failures in the U.S. Today that list has grown to 51 recorded turbine failures. Across the pond, the British group Caithness Wind Farms, which tracks such global turbine accidents, says the number has jumped to 65 so far this year, up from 11 in 2001.

Lisa Linowes, executive director of the group, said the failure in Wyanet is evidence that wind energy isn't as safe as its proponents claim. "This whole thing about safety worries us a lot," she said. "In the last year, there have been at least 15 cases, and those are just cases that have been reported."

There are 11 wind turbines at Green Mountain Power's Searsburg wind facility but recently one of them suffered a setback when its nacelle (or wind turbine gearbox) collapsed in high wind conditions. ...On Monday, September 15, a blade on turbine number 10 came in contact with the tower. The chain reaction caused it to buckle and it crashed to the ground, scattering debris several hundred feet from the structure. No individuals were hurt when the nacelle collapsed. However the nacelle leaked 40 gallons of hydraulic oil on the site.

A wind turbine blade came crashing to the ground Wednesday, halting energy production at a small-scale wind farm southwest of Wyanet because of what may be a defective design. In all, four turbines on Richard Shertz's property - all part of the AgriWind facility in central Bureau County - have stopped turning after a blade on top of one of the towers broke off about 9:30 a.m. "It was the loudest noise I've ever heard," he said. "I thought it was thunder."

Shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday, a rotating blade on a wind turbine at Schertz's farm broke off, plunging to the earth in a cornfield about 150 feet west of the turbine. ...The spokesperson said the investigation into this turbine had just started, but the company was in the middle of a blade retrofit program across the United States to correct an "unfortunate" design issue in the first generation of this blade.

A proposed wind turbine at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds faces one more hurdle before it can be approved by the city. After being approved unanimously by both the Board of Zoning Appeals and Planning Commission, the turbine is now before City Council.

It turns out that recent shipments of king-size wind turbine blades that cut through the heart of downtown Buffalo were not off course after all. Mary Joyce Permits of Randolph, which plotted the delivery trucks' course and arranged escort vehicles, purposely steered the bulky loads from the Peace Bridge, down Niagara Street to Niagara Square and up Delaware Avenue. ..."It's not ideal, but we've got the required city permits, and we'll continue to bring them through downtown until the construction situation changes," she said.

A blade on one of the Searsburg wind power turbines flew off during a recent windstorm, hitting the tower the turbine sits on and destroying it. It is unclear when, or even if, the nonfunctioning turbine will be back to full capacity. It was one of 11 that make up the Searsburg project owned by Green Mountain Power. "We had some really strong winds coming through," said GMP spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure. "A blade failed and struck the tower."

Rumours that giant wind turbines at Camber are sinking into the marsh have been scotched. Neale East, of the Wind Farm Liaison Group, said: "No they are not sinking. There is no truth in this whatsoever. "All 26 turbines are now up and the next construction work to take place will be putting up three metereological masts.