Article
Blade falls off wind turbine in Gloucester
Gloucester Daily Times|Jul 31, 2022
The turbine at the Varian campus was built at a cost of about $8 million, and went online in December 2012, the first of three installed at Blackburn Industrial Park ...The other two turbines in the industrial park are operated by the city of Gloucester and its partners, and have been spinning since 2013. Applied Materials removed the blades from the turbine to make repairs before reattaching them at the end of 2018. The city's turbines also have been subject to a series of maintenance and repair projects, shut down to fix hydraulic leaks, and a blown circuit board.
The turbine at the Varian campus was built at a cost of about $8 million, and went online in December 2012, the first of three installed at Blackburn Industrial Park ...The other two turbines in the industrial park are operated by the city of Gloucester and its partners, and have been spinning since 2013. Applied Materials removed the blades from the turbine to make repairs before reattaching them at the end of 2018. The city's turbines also have been subject to a series of maintenance and repair projects, shut down to fix hydraulic leaks, and a blown circuit board.
A broken blade lies at the foot of the wind turbine at Applied Materials/Varian Semiconductors prpoerty on Great Republic Drive on Sunday morning. The blade fell overnight.
A 160-foot blade fell off the wind turbine located on Great Republic Road on the Gloucester property of Applied Materials/Varian Semiconductor Associates on Saturday night.
Blackburn Drive and is closed Sunday morning because of the fallen blade, and customers trying to reach the Happy Valley marijuana dispensary at 28 Great Republic Road were being instructed to use Pond Road to reach the store.
Mayor Greg Verga said police and the Fire Department are on scene working with Applied Materials to gather facts.
Also on scene is Baldwin Crane, the Wilmington-based …
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A broken blade lies at the foot of the wind turbine at Applied Materials/Varian Semiconductors prpoerty on Great Republic Drive on Sunday morning. The blade fell overnight.
A 160-foot blade fell off the wind turbine located on Great Republic Road on the Gloucester property of Applied Materials/Varian Semiconductor Associates on Saturday night.
Blackburn Drive and is closed Sunday morning because of the fallen blade, and customers trying to reach the Happy Valley marijuana dispensary at 28 Great Republic Road were being instructed to use Pond Road to reach the store.
Mayor Greg Verga said police and the Fire Department are on scene working with Applied Materials to gather facts.
Also on scene is Baldwin Crane, the Wilmington-based company that handled the offloading of the turbine's parts from barges, their transportation to the Applied Materials site, and the construction of the turbine in 2012.
The turbine at the Varian campus was built at a cost of about $8 million, and went online in December 2012, the first of three installed at Blackburn Industrial Park, and also the tallest — 492 feet when measured from its base to the top of a fully outstretched blade — in the Northeast at the time. The other two turbines in the industrial park are operated by the city of Gloucester and its partners, and have been spinning since 2013.
Applied Materials removed the blades from the turbine to make repairs before reattaching them at the end of 2018. At the time, the company said the turbine had saved it up to $1 million in annual energy costs since being installed, and was producing about 30% of the electricity for the company's Gloucester campus while while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 34%.
The city's turbines also have been subject to a series of maintenance and repair projects, shut down to fix hydraulic leaks, and a blown circuit board. The city reeled in $203,474.99 in credits and revenues from the two turbines in fiscal 2018.
This is a developing story, and will be updated here at gloucestertimes.com.