MidAmerican 'pauses wind turbines' after Siemens Gamesa blade plunges to ground in US
ReCharge News|Andrew Lee |February 15, 2023
The blade separated from the hub of the Siemens Gamesa 2.3MW turbine at the Lundgren project on 12 February before landing in a field, MidAmerican told Recharge in a statement.
The blade separated from the hub of the Siemens Gamesa 2.3MW turbine at the Lundgren project on 12 February before landing in a field, MidAmerican told Recharge in a statement.
Investigation launched by OEM after unit detaches from rotor hub at developer's Lundgren wind farm in state of Iowa
US power giant MidAmerican Energy has halted operation of some of its turbines after a blade detached from one its machines at a wind farm in the state of Iowa.
The blade separated from the hub of the Siemens Gamesa 2.3MW turbine at the Lundgren project on 12 February before landing in a field, MidAmerican told Recharge in a statement. No-one was injured and there was no other damage to equipment at the 250MW array.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have paused a number of wind turbines as we learn more about the failure. Incidents like this are very rare but are nonetheless something that we take very seriously,” said the …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Investigation launched by OEM after unit detaches from rotor hub at developer's Lundgren wind farm in state of Iowa
US power giant MidAmerican Energy has halted operation of some of its turbines after a blade detached from one its machines at a wind farm in the state of Iowa.
The blade separated from the hub of the Siemens Gamesa 2.3MW turbine at the Lundgren project on 12 February before landing in a field, MidAmerican told Recharge in a statement. No-one was injured and there was no other damage to equipment at the 250MW array.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have paused a number of wind turbines as we learn more about the failure. Incidents like this are very rare but are nonetheless something that we take very seriously,” said the wind operator.
“MidAmerican initially took fewer than two dozen turbines offline at Lundgren and at other sites so we could conduct safety inspections following this incident. We have completed about half of those inspections and fewer than 10 remain. We will return the remaining turbines to service soon, provided that they pass our inspections.”
Siemens Gamesa said in a statement: “A single blade on a wind turbine at the Lundgren wind farm in Webster County, Iowa, US, liberated from the hub. There are no reported injuries or damage to other equipment and a full investigation is underway to determine the cause of this incident.”
The Lundgren wind farm was developed by EDF and brought into service in 2014 after being sold to MidAmerican. The project was equipped as part of a 1GW deal with Siemens Gamesa, then just Siemens, for turbines supplied from its Iowa and Kansas factories that at the time was among the largest seen in the US industry.
MidAmerican, part of the Berkshire Hathaway group owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, in 2020 stopped a number of Vestas turbines after blade incidents that it linked to built-in lightning protection systems.
Note: Update adds further detail on turbine numbers