TURBINE SAFETY QUESTIONED
Giant topples in Chatham-Kent
An industrial wind turbine buckled in south Chatham-Kent during the night, leaving the motor and blades lying mangled on the ground Friday.
Chad Reed, director of investor relations with TerraForm Power, an owner of the Raleigh Wind Power project, told Postmedia News in an email Friday that the turbine collapsing on Sixteenth Line near Drake Road, “did not cause any injuries or impact the broader community.
“We are currently investigating the cause of the issue,” he added. “In the meantime, we have secured the immediate area around the turbine and taken the full facility off-line as a precaution as we conduct a site inspection.”
The way the turbine toppled over is unusual, said Jon Oldred, vicepresident of product management for HBM Prenscia. The company, which has a location in Southfield, Mich., provides software for manufacturers, including the wind energy industry, to design products with structural integrity to avoid fatigue failure.
Looking at a photograph of the crumpled turbine Postmedia News provided, Oldred said: “It looks like a major buckling of the tower at the mid-point, which is unlikely to be a fatigue failure.”
He said it appears an “extreme load of some kind” may have caused this damage.
Oldred said more common structural failures that occur with turbines happen in the gearbox or with shaft or mechanical aspects of the structures.
“They break quite regularly, but to have the whole tower fail, that’s more of a civil engineering problem, and I would say pretty unusual,” Oldred said.
Chatham-Kent Police Service Sgt. Paul Pomajba said, “What we can tell you is that there is no suspicion of foul play at this time.”
He said the incident is under investigation by TerraForm and the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change have also been contacted.
“A number of other experts will be attending the scene to determine the cause of what has happened here today,” Pomajba said.
Steve Mead, who lives three concessions away from the toppled turbine, has long had concerns about the structures after seeing several videos on the Internet showing blades that have broken off and flown “great distances.”
“Now they’re falling apart here,” he added. “How safe are we?”
He said when the plan for erecting wind farms was proposed, it was touted as safe, renewable energy.
“I’m not feeling very safe right now,” Mead said, adding he has a full 360-degree view of turbines around his house.
South Kent Coun. Karen Herman went to the scene of the turbine collapse. Herman said she was “speechless.”
“We need to find out what happened,” she said. “I can’t imagine this being a normal occurrence.”
Herman said she took a picture of the scene and immediately shared it with her council colleagues as well as members of Chatham-Kent’s executive management team.
“I’m just glad no one’s hurt. I think that’s the important thing here right now,” she said.
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change said Friday it was aware of the incident.
“Ministry staff are attending the site today to ensure that the company takes the necessary steps to contain and clean up any spilled materials,” the email said.
“We are actively monitoring the situation and will ensure that the company determines the cause of the incident,” the ministry said, adding, “the Ministry of Labour has also been notified and is sending an engineer to the site today.”