Wind turbine collapsed at Haltern: Search for the cause begins

After the collapse of an almost 240 meter high wind turbine in a forest near Haltern, an expert is now investigating the cause. The damage amounts to several million euros.

The debris is not removed so quickly, the site of the accident is cordoned off within a radius of several hundred meters.

The police do not assume that the collapse was a crime. On Friday, an expert began looking for the cause of the collapse. The manufacturer Nordex commissioned him. Were there material defects or perhaps human error during assembly? The search will likely take time.

Debris is scattered everywhere

The cracking noises from the collapse of the wind turbine could be heard for miles on Wednesday evening. The next day, the huge pieces of rubble were partly directly on the base of the only a few months old system, partly in the forest in the middle of the Hohe Mark.

Wind turbine broken off at a height of 20 meters

The wind turbine had a hub height of 164 meters, the rotor blades reached a height of up to 239 meters. The wind turbine broke down far below - only about 20 meters above the ground. The tower collapsed and parts of the wings fell into the surrounding forest.

But nobody was injured. The fire brigade searched the forest with thermal imaging cameras, and a police helicopter was also in action. They wanted to rule out the possibility of strollers being hit by debris.

Six million euros in damage

Haltern Mayor Andreas Stegemann was horrified during a visit to the site of the accident that such an accident is even possible. The wind turbine from the manufacturer Nordex was operated by Stadtwerke Haltern and a subsidiary of Ruhrkohle AG . They assume property damage in the amount of six million euros.

According to Nordex, there are almost two dozen identical turbines in Germany or are still under construction. As a preventive measure, all 23 systems with the same configuration have been temporarily shut down nationwide, according to Nordex. This also includes a neighboring facility in Haltern. Among other things, the identical Jüchen wind farm was taken off the grid.

Misfortune shortly before the inauguration of the wind turbine

The facility, which cost around five million euros, was only put into operation six months ago, the official inauguration was delayed due to the corona pandemic - it should take place on Thursday.

Last year, the blades of another wind turbine in Haltern broke off due to material defects. And in a wind farm in Jüchen, the tower of an identical wind turbine had already been found to be damaged in August. This plant, which had not yet been commissioned, was immediately shut down as a precaution, the energy group RWE, one of the operators of the Jüchen wind farm, announced on Friday.

The damage was assessed together with the manufacturer and a new calculation of the statics was requested. It was only at the beginning of this week that the dismantling of the rotor blades, the nacelle and parts of the tower of this plant had been agreed with the manufacturer.

Translation to English using Google Translate