Renewables

Boat damaged after collision with turbine at Hornsea offshore wind farm

Published by

A service operation vessel (SOV) under charter to Danish offshore wind giant Ørsted reportedly collided with a wind turbine at the Hornsea 1 offshore wind farm located in the UK’s part of the North Sea.

According to a statement from French offshore services provider Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA), the SOV Wind of Hope “allided with a wind turbine” at Hornsea 1 on September 19.

With a crew of 26 and carrying an additional 46 specialist personnel, LDA reported that there were no injuries and that there was no water ingress or water pollution as a result of the accident.

The accident nevertheless resulted in damage to the starboard side of the Wind of Hope above the waterline and the helideck. The Wind of Hope will now proceed to port for damage assessment.

The allision also resulted in “some” damage to the base of the turbine, which led Ørsted to create an exclusion zone around the turbine.

This serves as just the latest offshore wind farm mishap to plague the sector this year.

Several turbine blade failures have dominated headlines – though very little commonality has been determined between the incidents, despite three blades failing at the same wind farm.

In May, damage was sustained to a single turbine blade during construction at the massive 3.6GW Dogger Bank project in the North Sea, deemed a result of an installation issue. A second blade failed in August but was billed only as “a blade failure”, while a third blade failure was blamed on a combination of high winds during a storm that hit during the commissioning process.  

A fourth blade failure, this time during the construction of Vineyard Wind, the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm to be built in the United States, was reported in August.

All four incidents involved blades made by American energy equipment manufacturer GE Vernova, but the company insisted that issues causing the failures were unrelated.  

Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.

Joshua S Hill

Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.

Share
Published by

Recent Posts

Independent running against Dutton wants bipartisan focus on home batteries after cyclone outages

With most Dickson homes using solar but few affording batteries, Independent candidate Ellie Smith has…

14 March 2025

Energy ministers push for rethink on how regulator sets electricity price benchmark

Federal and state energy ministers call on AER to "further interrogate" inputs to its final…

14 March 2025

Coalition refuses to back Australia and Pacific Island nations hosting 2026 UN climate summit

Coalition refuses to commit to backing the 2026 UN climate summit that Australia's current government…

14 March 2025

Zinc miner wins federal green tick to triple size of wind farm, slash crippling gas costs

Upsized plans to build wind farm to help power a massive zinc mine in the…

14 March 2025

New grant scheme seeks to make getting off gas easier for Victorian households

Victorian government continues push to get millions of households across the state off gas and…

14 March 2025

No more stressful than road traffic noise: New study adds to debunking of “wind turbine syndrome”

New study showed that short-term exposure to wind turbine noise had no impact on cognitive…

14 March 2025