General Electric faces new questions over the safety of its wind turbines after the fifth collapse this year left a worker injured in Brazil.
The worker is being treated for injuries after the incident at the Delta 6 wind farm operated by Omega Energia in Maranhao state.
A GE statement sent to Recharge said: “On 3 September, a GE turbine collapsed at the Delta 6 wind park, located at Paulino Neves, Maranhao.
“During the collapse, three GE employees were at the site. One individual was injured and is currently receiving medical treatment. The safety of our employees is of the upmost importance, and we are supporting the injured employee and his family during this time.
“We are working to determine the root cause of this incident and to provide proper support as needed.”
GE did not say which model was involved. The incident is the fifth collapse to hit GE wind turbines in the Americas in 2019 – two in Brazil and three in the US. The most recent was in July at the 216MW Ventos de São Clemente project in the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco.
However, the latest incident marks an escalation in gravity because of the injury to a employee – nobody was hurt in the other collapses.
As before, the project involved is a relatively new addition to the developer’s fleet. Delta 6 has only been operational since December 2018, according to the Omega Energia website.
A spokesman for GE in the US added: “It is too early to speculate about the root cause of this week’s turbine collapse. Based on our learnings from the previous turbine collapses, we have teams in place focused on containing and resolving these issues quickly, to ensure the safe and reliable operation of our turbines.”