Wind turbine blade breaks in Sweden, as media focuses on nacelle fire in Texas

Sweden has recorded a second wind farm accident within the space of one week, with the failure of a turbine bade at the 175MW Björkvattnet wind farm north of Stockholm on July 21.

The project manager of the wind farm, OX2, said the blade broke at 8pm on Thursday last week, causing the shut down of the five other turbines at the site, which hosts 33 GE 5.3MW Cypress machines.

No one was hurt in the incident, but according to reports the blade break was witnessed by a family with children picking berries nearby.

“We currently have a 250-metre safety perimeter around the affected turbine and have currently stopped five other turbines in the park for inspections as a part of the ongoing root cause analysis,” a spokesperson from OX2 said.

“GE has people on site that have initiated the root cause analysis.”

The incident marks the second time a turbine blade has broken at the Björkvattnet wind farm, which is also reported to have suffered three crane accidents during its construction.

The first incidence of a turbine blade breaking at the project was in September of 2021. No one was hurt and investigations determined the cause to be a one-off issue related to a manufacturing glitch in the lamination process.

The GE turbines are from the global engineering and industrial giant’s Cypress platform, and use a “unique two-piece blade design” that allows them be made longer, while improving logistics to drive costs down and offer more siting options, in locations previously inaccessible.

The turbine blade break follows a turbine tower collapse at a separate Swedish wind farm on July 16, just days after the project was inaugurated.

As RenewEconomy reported last week, the 475MW Nysäter wind farm was inaugurated and connected to the local grid on July 9, around 400km north of Stockholm.

Less than a fortnight later one of the project’s 114 Nordex turbines collapsed. No one was injured and the cause of the collapse is being investigated.

Meanwhile, in Texas, a lightning strike set a GE wind turbine ablaze at a project in Foard City on Friday afternoon, with video footage of the dramatic scene doing the rounds on news sites and social media.

The wind farm operator, Innergex Renewable Energy, said all personnel at the project were safe, and the fire had only affected the one turbine.