Turbine's blade damage ‘unusual'
The Daily Chronicle|Dana Herra|May 8, 2010
Officials at NextEra Energy Resources aren't sure what caused one of the three blades on a wind turbine south of the village of Shabbona to fail Friday morning. The 131-foot-long blade hung from the top of the turbine Friday, apparently bent at the base and split along its length.
Officials at NextEra Energy Resources aren't sure what caused one of the three blades on a wind turbine south of the village of Shabbona to fail Friday morning. The 131-foot-long blade hung from the top of the turbine Friday, apparently bent at the base and split along its length.
DHABBONA TOWNSHIP - Officials at NextEra Energy Resources aren't sure what caused one of the three blades on a wind turbine south of the village of Shabbona to fail Friday morning. The 131-foot-long blade hung from the top of the turbine Friday, apparently bent at the base and split along its length.
That type of failure is unusual, NextEra spokesman Steve Stengel said.
"Our inspection at this point has just been visual, so at this point we don't know what caused that," Stengel said Friday afternoon. "Based on just visual inspection, it's very unusual to have a blade fail and look like that."
Stengel said the blade failed about 7:30 a.m. Friday. No one was injured and nothing besides the blade was damaged, he said. The turbine has …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]DHABBONA TOWNSHIP - Officials at NextEra Energy Resources aren't sure what caused one of the three blades on a wind turbine south of the village of Shabbona to fail Friday morning. The 131-foot-long blade hung from the top of the turbine Friday, apparently bent at the base and split along its length.
That type of failure is unusual, NextEra spokesman Steve Stengel said.
"Our inspection at this point has just been visual, so at this point we don't know what caused that," Stengel said Friday afternoon. "Based on just visual inspection, it's very unusual to have a blade fail and look like that."
Stengel said the blade failed about 7:30 a.m. Friday. No one was injured and nothing besides the blade was damaged, he said. The turbine has been shut down.
The access road leading from Houghtby Road to that section of the 145-tower commercial wind farm was blocked off with orange cones and traffic barricades Friday. Stengel said NextEra is in the process of getting a replacement blade and arranging for a crane to repair the turbine so it can go back online after the cause of the failure has been determined.
Several vehicles pulled to the side of Houghtby Road while their occupants looked at the broken turbine Friday. One of those looking was Mel Hass, a member of a citizens group that filed a lawsuit last year opposing the wind farm.
Hass said he came to look at the turbine after getting a call that it had failed, and he had wondered if it was somehow damaged in a Thursday night thunderstorm.