Swedish wind turbine collapses days after wind farm inauguration

A single wind turbine at a 114-turbine wind farm in Sweden has collapsed only days after the wind farm was inaugurated.

The 475MW Nysäter wind farm was inaugurated and connected to the local grid on July 9, around 400 kilometres north of Stockholm, which is expected to generate enough electricity to cover the annual needs of more than 300,000 households.

Developed by RWE Renewables Sweden, which took the project over in 2011 from the original developer SCA, the Nysäter wind farm is home to 114 Nordex wind turbines.

Unfortunately, less than a fortnight after it was connected to the grid, a single turbine collapsed at the site around midday on July 16.

A statement on the Nysäter wind farm’s website confirmed that no one was injured and that the area around the affected wind turbine is now closed.

Initial reports said the original statement cited “oil from the gearbox” as a potential cause, but that part of the statement is no longer there.

It goes on to say that a “crash team” was due to start work on its investigation this week, and the entire wind farm will be closed until their report is complete.

Up to date Swedish wind energy figures are hard to come by, but in 2020 the country’s total wind energy capacity was 10 084 MW from 4 333 wind turbines, according to the IEA.

Separately, according to the Swedish Energy Agency, the country installed another 2.1GW worth of wind energy capacity in 2021, which doesn’t include the 475MW installed at the Nysäter wind farm this year.

Last month, a turbine at the 16-year old Walkaway wind farm in Western Australia collapsed, without explanation as yet, leading to a four week hiatus from production as individual turbines were inspected.