High winds detach another serrated edge from turbine at Australia’s largest wind project

Heavy winds during the early February storms are being blamed for knocking a piece of sawtooth edging off one of the turbines at the Golden Plains wind farm in Victoria, the country’s biggest wind project.

The parts, pieces of serrated trailing edges that fit onto the bottom of a turbine rotor, detached during a storm on February 2, turbine and parts supplier Vestas told Renew Economy.

No injuries or damages to property have been reported, and a 400m exclusion zone under turbine 169 – imposed initially after the event – has been removed.

“All appropriate safety measures have been implemented at the site. Currently, detachments have been reported from one wind turbine. It has been inspected, the exclusion zone has been removed, and the repair plan is underway,” Vestas said in an emailed statement on Monday.

“As a precaution, exclusion zones have been set around various other wind turbines for additional management.”

Worksafe has been contacted for comment, but is not investigating this incident as Vestas and owner TagEnergy are taking steps recommended after a similar problem happened in September last year. Locals and workers were advised to wear protective head gear at the time if they approached the affected turbines.

The bendy, plastic serrated edges are designed to improve airflow over the wind turbine blades and reduce the noise they make when spinning, and are now a common feature of modern turbine blades.

Wind speeds around Rokewood on 2 February hit 64.8km/h, according to data from Willyweather. This was dwarfed by the 96.1km/h maximum seen in September, and seven days before the February incident the area had experienced wind speeds above 77km/h.

The turbine currently under maintenance is part of the 756MW stage one section of the huge wind farm, which began exporting power in October last year. 

Work is beginning on the second 577MW stage of the $4 billion, 1.3GW project. Stage two is expected to start producing power in 2027. 

The massive wind farm has been rocked by bad news over the last six months.  In November, sub-contractor Jess Patience, 36, was crushed beneath a turbine blade and died when the scaffolding holding it on the ground collapsed above him.