A lorry driver in Germany survived with minor injuries after a crash with a 62m-long turbine blade being transported to a wind facility. Autobahn 33 near Bielefeld was blocked for hours as the blade landed across the road.

Safety Germany

The blade was knocked across the entire width of the autobahn when another lorry ran into the back of one of the transporter’s escort vehicles.

Safety Germany

The giant blade of a wind turbine fell from the truck that was transporting it on Tuesday morning, squashing the cabin of another truck and completely shutting down traffic on a busy motorway.

Safety Germany

Representatives of the wind power sector have complained of a lack of acceptance for this form of energy production in Thuringia. The four dialogue forums, organized by the state government in 2016, were too little to reduce reservations about projects, said Michael Heinrich of plant engineer Enercon on Monday at a meeting in Gotha. Any known planning for a wind farm results in a citizens' initiative being formed.

General Germany

In January, green power plants in Germany were almost completely turned off as energy suppliers for weeks. A so-called dark tone was responsible. A high pressure area provides still winds and fog, while at the same time the electricity demand in Germany is increasing strongly, also because it is so cold.

Energy Policy Germany

The reason for the crash and the identity of the pilot both remained unclear by Thursday afternoon. But the plane reportedly hit the wind turbine at a height of 40 metres in relatively clear air.

Safety Germany

The audit office points to a risk that Energiewende costs could increase more and more, laments a lack of co-operation between the federal and state governments that leads to a doubling up of efforts, and notes that the government hasn’t succeeded in building up functioning cost-control mechanisms.

Energy Policy Germany

The prominent German economist Heiner Flassbeck has challenged fundamental assumptions of the Energiewende at his blog site makroskop.eu. According to Flassbeck, the former Director of Macroeconomics and Development at the UNCTAD in Geneva and a former State Secretary of Finance, a recent period of extremely low solar and wind power generation shows that Germany will never be able to rely on renewable energy, regardless of  how much new capacity will be built.

Energy Policy Germany

In the past four weeks, four giant power-generating wind turbines in Germany have either toppled over or experienced broken rotary blades. Now the question is: How safe are wind turbines really?

Safety Structural Failure Germany

This video by Verlagsgruppe Random House was created for the promotion of the book “Geopferte Landschaften” by Georg Etscheit (editor) and published by HEYNE Verlag. Special thanks to Friends Against Wind for bringing this video to our attention and working to provide the English subtitles. English subtitles by Vind-Alarm-Danmark.eu & Friends-Against-Wind.org.

Impact on Landscape Germany

So far the investigation has found that one of three blades failed catastrophically, thus creating a huge imbalance that caused the tower to buckle 15 meters above the ground and led to the structure crashing down. ...The incident comes weeks after a similar turbine collapse in the Mecklenburg Pommeria town of Süderholz.

Safety Structural Failure Germany

When on New Year's Eve he walked along the Mähneweg near Bocholt, a chunk of ice crashed to the ground just a few meters from where he stood. "I've got a huge horror, of course," he says. The approximately 60-centimeter (nearly 2-foot) ice piece had flown down from a 98-meter high wind turbine.

Safety Icing Germany

Three days after the disaster of a wind turbine near Leisnig in Central Saxony, a technical defect has been found as the cause of the accident. After completion of the investigation it was clear that one of three rotor blades was broken.

Safety Structural Failure Germany

A wind turbine standing nearly 100-meters tall and sited near Leisnig in Central Saxony (Germany) collapsed after one of its three blades broke created an imbalance in the tower. According to the investigative report, the force of the impact imbedded the gearbox unit almost 2 meters into the ground.

Safety Structural Failure Germany

Onshore wind in the production figures accounted for 10% of Germany’s electricity output in 2016, down from 11% in 2015, while offshore wind expanded to 2% of production, up from 1% a year earlier. Wind on land shrank despite a continued rapid addition of new capacity due to weaker winds this year.

Energy Policy Germany

European clean power group led by Peter Terium has big plans to invest in the country Donald Trump’s election will have no effect on the growth in US renewables despite his claim that global warming is a “hoax” and his opposition to the Paris climate accord, says the boss of one of Europe’s biggest clean power companies.

Energy Policy Germany USA

Experts in China, India, Russia and America praise climate policy in Germany, but before they imitate Germany' spolicy they should be warned. Does Germany need to reorient itself?

Energy Policy Germany

Project delays, margin pressure, adjusted forecast: Although the business of the wind turbine builder Nordex is still running well, investors and experts are increasingly doubting the medium-term targets. This is also due to Donald Trump. DUSSELDORF - From the perspective of Nordex boss Lars Bondo Krogsgaard everything is going "as planned". Sales are increasing, profit are up and the annual goals of the Hamburg wind power group are still "readily in reach", said the native Dane on Thursday with the submission of the quarterly figures. But the investors of Germany's third-largest producer of wind turbines are far less optimistic than Krogsgaard.

General Germany

The levy German power consumers pay on their electricity bills to finance the build-up of renewables (EEG surcharge) next year will jump by 8.3% to €0.0688 ($0.0758) per kilowatt hour of electricity consumed, re-igniting a heated debate on the cost of the country’s energy transition.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Germany

Germany is taking steps to curb its booming windfarm sector in what it claims is a necessary move to stop the renewables revolution from undermining its own success.

Energy Policy Germany