The Ford County Board’s zoning committee finalized a package of proposed changes to the county’s ordinance regulating wind farms Tuesday morning, including a proposal to more than double the distance that wind turbines must be from homes. ...The committee re-voted on the proposed ordinance to include a setback of 2,250 feet from primary structures, or four times a turbine’s tip height, whichever is greater. The amended proposal was approved unanimously.

Safety Zoning/Planning Illinois

County plan panel listens to residents voice safety, health concerns

Impact on People Safety Illinois

Lake Land College has removed two wind turbines after they suffered enough damage to render them inoperable. "The situation with the two 100 kW wind turbines is a snapshot of renewable energy in the United States in 2017," said Joseph Tillman, the division chair and Lake Land College's renewable energy instructor and coordinator. Wind is going to be around for a while, but other forms of renewable (energy) are gaining in use. 

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

A wind turbine at Lakeland College might have too many issues to keep it up and running. The school's president says fixing one of their wind turbines wouldn't be worth it. Monday night, he'll be making his case to the board. 

Safety Illinois

Bullock said the southernmost wind turbine of Lake Land's two 160-foot-tall, 100-kilowatt turbines was damaged by a lightning strike last summer and has not functioned properly since then. He said the administration does not believe that making the nearly $100,000 in repairs estimated for the turbine would be cost effective.

Safety Illinois

A wind energy conversion turbine caught fire Friday afternoon, causing responses from both Saunemin and Pontiac fire departments. ...It is, however, a little ironic that the source of power the turbines were trying to capture may have also caused or exacerbated the fire at the turbine.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

A wind turbine in northern Livingston County caught fire Friday. ...Streator Cayuga Ridge began operating in March 2010.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

The Boone County Planning, Zoning and Building Committee on Wednesday voted 4-1 to recommend an amendment to an ordinance governing where wind turbines can be placed in relation to property lines. ...The revised ordinance states that wind energy conversion systems must be at least 2,640 feet, or 5.5 times the height of the turbine tower, away from a property line. The current ordinance states that wind turbines must be 1,000 feet from a residence.

Safety Zoning/Planning Illinois

Heavy black smoke and flames billowed out of the gearbox, rotor shaft and brake assembly case of the horizontal axis wind turbine (W7). Most of one flaming propeller fell to the ground.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

Dramatic images of a turbine burning near Sublette Illinois.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

Fire struck another wind turbine in Illinois at a facility near Sublette. Smoke could be seen from miles away. This event occured within 24 hours of several tornados touching down in the same area.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

A wind turbine near Emington burned Sunday afternoon, bringing attention from people for miles.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

Iberdrola Renewables' Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Power Project located in Livingston County, IL experienced a catastrophic failure at one of the 150 Gamesa G87 2.0 MW turbines. Illinois residents caught the fire on video. 

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

The flaming turbine is part of Iberdrola Renewables' Streator Cayuga Ridge South Wind Power Project located in  Livingston County, IL. The 300 megawatt facility includes 150 Gamesa G87 2.0 MW turbines. It was placed in-service in March 2010. Residents reported that fire crews were acting “traffic control only”.  Iberdrola trucks arrived after fire crews left. The turbine was still burning when Iberdrola left. 

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

"On approach, we could see a lot of heavy smoke coming from the turbine," said Manchester. "As we got closer, we were able to see there was quite a bit of flame coming from the top portion of the turbine where the blades attach.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

Driving down a county road in Henry County, Illinois, it’s not hard to spot the wind turbine with a broken blade. There are hundreds of turbines in the area but only one with two blades instead of three.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

Only one 159-foot-long blade remains attached to turbine No. 134 on Thursday in the California Ridge Wind Farm north of Oakwood. Owner Invenergy's initial investigation found that severe weather caused one of the other two blades to break off and fall to the base Nov. 20, taking another down on its way.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

General Electric said it is doing “thorough investigations” of three recent incidents involving GE wind turbines breaking in the U.S. — including one at the California Ridge Wind Farm in Vermilion County — and has identified “a suspect population of roughly 1.5 percent of our total blades in our wind turbine fleet.”

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

  For the third time in 17 months, a wind turbine blade manufactured by General Electric has broken off at an East Central Illinois wind farm. The latest incident occurred about 9 p.m. Nov. 20 in Vermilion County at the California Ridge Wind Farm operated by Chicago-based Invenergy. Another turbine blade broke in that same wind farm in November 2012, following a June 2012 blade break at the Settlers Trail Wind Farm near Sheldon.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois

Early this morning, there was a wind turbine failure at the California Ridge Wind Farm just north of Oakwood, Illinois near the Newtown Middle School location.

Safety Structural Failure Illinois