A wind turbine suffered a major collapse earlier this week on a flagship renewable energy project in Vietnam’s Bac Lieu province, according to local media reports.
The incident occurred on the Hoa Binh 5 wind farm, operated by local developer Hacom Bac Lieu Energy in a region of coastal flatlands in the Mekong Delta, according Vietnamese news website Dan Tri.
A broken tower resulted in the nacelle and blades falling crashing to the ground.
The blades “broke into many sections, and were seriously damaged”, according to the news report which cited information from a regional government committee.
Debris was said to be spread for an area covering almost 100 square metres.
Photos appeared to show mangled blades and the main turbine section half-submerged in a paddy field near to the broken tower.
The incident, which occurred close to a hamlet called Vinh Moi in rural Hoa Binh district, did not result in any reports of loss of life or injury but damage to property is still being assessed, Dan Tri reported.
Initial reports in Vietnamese news outlets estimated this damage at about 200bn Vietnamese dong ($8.1m).
The wind turbine, which was one of 26 on the project, was described as 140 metres in height, without further identification. Blades were described as 80 metres long.
Hoa Binh 5 wind farm started operations in October, 2020, with turbines with a mix of 3MW, 3.3MW and 4MW according to available project data.
Hacom Bac Lieu Energy did not immediately reply to requests for information.
According to the local news reports, the chairman of Hoa Binh District People's Committee reassured locals that the developer was looking into causes, but Hacom Bac Lieu Energy company did not make a statement of its own.
The coastal regions of Hoa Binh district and the wider Hacom Bac province have attracted a growing flow of wind power investments in recent years.
Hoa Binh 5 has a capacity of 80MW, but three more wind farms have added a total 270MW of capacity in this district in recent years.
The wider Bac Lieu province, with strong and fairly stable costal winds, has emerged as the leading wind power province in the Mekong Delta. It has eight wind farms currently in operation with a capacity of nearly 470MW, and two more expected to start s soon to bring combined capacity to 660MW.
