Snapped Siemens blade brings Whitelee to standstill
Scotland's 322-megawatt (MW) Whitelee project – Europe’s largest wind farm, located near Glasgow, Scotland – was brought to a standstill after a rotor blade snapped off one of the Siemens-made turbines.
The 150ft blade reportedly crashed to the ground on the evening of 19 March, triggering an alarm in the control room. Operators initially shut down the unit in question, before moving to halt the entire project.
Iberdrola subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), which developed and built the £300m ($450.1m) project, initially claimed to be looking into whether a lightning strike could have caused the breakage. But the Met Office, the UK’s national weather service, later said there had been no reports of lightning in the area when the accident occurred.
Siemens, which supplied 140 of its 2.3MW units for the project, claims it is the first time a blade has ever broken off one of its working turbines. SPR director Keith Anderson said such a breakage is “exceptionally rare”, adding that engineers from both SPR and Siemens are currently inspecting the 419 remaining blades at the project.
By the morning of 23 March, 50 of the turbines had been given the go-ahead and were once again spinning. The other 89 non-broken units are expected to be working by 26 March.
Whitelee provides all the electricity for nearby Glasgow, which is Scotland’s largest city, and just 9 miles away. The project is noteworthy for being located so close to a major population centre.