A fire engulfed one of the turbines at Ireland’s only offshore wind farm after a suspected lightning strike.
The GE turbine at the 25MW Arklow Bank project off County Wicklow was seen burning on Wednesday, with the local media and fire service pointing to fierce storms that hit the area.
The wind farm – commissioned in among the oldest in Europe – is run by GE Renewable Energy, which told Recharge: “An offshore wind turbine event has been reported on October 19 at the Arklow Bank Offshore Windfarm located in the Irish Sea.
“There were no injuries. The Coast Guard has been notified. Once weather conditions permit and we can access the site safely, we will start working to determine the root cause of this event.”
The 3.6MW turbines used at Arklow Bank marked a new record for offshore machines when they were commissioned in 2004.
Ireland is currently engaged in the early stages of a major offshore wind push that should within a few years finally see Arklow Bank joined by new capacity, with the nation targeting 7GW.
One of the first batch of projects seeking to advance is SSE Renewables’ Arklow Bank 2, which aims to add up to 800MW near the original project.
