In March, a blade broke from a similar GE 1.6-100 turbine at DTE’s 110MW Thumb Wind Park, also in Michigan. That unit, however, had been commissioned and was in operation.

No one was hurt in the 7 November incident which is under investigation by GE and DTE. Scott Simons, a DTE spokesman, tells Recharge that roughly half the blade fell to the ground at the turbine’s base during a six hour reliability test.