Probe launched as offshore wind turbine parts collapse into Sea in Denmark

An offshore wind turbine rotor with three blades detached from its nacelle and fell into the sea earlier this week at Ørsted's Anholt offshore wind farm in Denmark, spurring an investigation by the wind turbine maker Siemens Gamesa and wind farm developer Ørsted.

The 400MW wind farm in the Kattegat Sea consists of a total of 111 wind turbines with a capacity of 3.6MW each and is located in an area between Djursland and the island of Anholt.

"At Anholt Offshore Wind Farm in Denmark, a rotor including three blades has separated from the nacelle of one of the offshore wind turbines and fallen into the sea. No one has been injured. The relevant authorities have been notified about the incident. We are investigating the cause of the incident together with Siemens-Gamesa. The Anholt offshore wind farm continues to operate as normal, and customers will not be affected," Ørsted said.

Also, the company said Friday that all restrictions and notices about maritime activity in Ørsted’s offshore wind farms that use the SGRE 3.6MW and 4.0MW turbines were lifted.  

The total weight of a wind turbine at the Anholt offshore wind farm is 460 tonnes, distributed on 18 tonnes per blade, 200 tonnes for the tower, and 205 tonnes for the nacelle. The Anholt offshore wind farm became operational in 2013, while Ørsted was still known as Dong Energy.

Offshore Engineer reached out to Ørsted, seeking further details on the incident and the plan ahead.

An Ørsted spokesperson said: "There were no people nearby when the incident happened. We were notified by our own systems about the incident late Monday evening, and the full extent of the incident was discovered Tuesday morning. We will retrieve the rotor, but we don’t have a timeline for that yet."