Safety First: Run For The Hills When 300 Tonne Wind Turbines Hit The Deck

Massive subsidies fuel the wind industry, while self-generated myth and glowing propaganda just grease the wheels.

For wind industry spin-kings, one pesky problem that won’t go away is the routine and catastrophic collapses of these 300 tonne whirling wonders.

Over the last few years, there have been hundreds of ‘structural failures’ – where either 10-15 tonne blades are shredded or flung in all directions; or their 90-100m towers implode, unceremoniously delivering the 80-100 tonne nacelle to terra firma, with terrifying effect.

But these ‘fun facts’ don’t sit well with the wind industry’s glib claims of being safe, clean and green.

When one of these things explodes, implodes or self-immolates, the stock-standard response from the operators is to stay schtum, in the hope that the dangerous debacle simply blows over.

However, when the photographs taken by locals emerge, the last redoubt is claiming that these are ‘extremely rare events’, the ‘first of their kind’, ‘we’ve launched a thorough investigation into the event’, blah, blah, blah.

This time, it was Western Australians who got to witness, firsthand, the terrifying effect that gravity has on these things.

Alinta Wind Farm turbine collapses in Walkaway, causing site closure while Iberdrola Energy investigates
The West Australian
Jessica Moroney
17 June 2022

A collapsed turbine at a Walkaway wind farm has resulted in operations shutting down at the site, while maintenance contractors investigate the incident.

The wind power station, Alinta Wind Farm, is operated by one of Australia’s largest renewable energy assets, Iberdrola Energy.

In a statement, Iberdrola Australia said Turbine 43 collapsed on private agricultural land on Wednesday, June 8 about 8.30am about 35km south-east of Geraldton.

The company described the incident as “a major failure”, stating the local landholders and their representatives were promptly notified of the collapse.

“At this stage it appears that private property damage is limited to a fence dividing two paddocks along with a portion of a recently planted canola crop,” it stated.

The Walkaway wind farm off Nangetty-Walkaway Road has shut off all operations while the cause of the fallen turbine is examined.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the area has been secured, the wind farm has been shut down, and we are currently working with the operations and maintenance contractor, Vestas, to determine the cause of the failure,” Iberdrola Australia said.

An anonymous resident who observed the tower said he was concerned in regard to safety risks and the fallen wind turbines were “a known issue”.

There were no known injuries to people or wildlife reported to the company.

The West Australian