Raging storms and 50 mph gales caused the blades of a 300 ft rotary wind turbine to whirl at double the pace of usual, causing the $2 million wind turbine to topple over.
The turbine, which was almost the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral, was shattered by the violent winds before it finally fell to the ground.
Families in Gilfach Goch, South Wales, a neighbouring community, described the boom as sounding like “thunder and lightning.”
After a power outage led the blades to operate in a “overspeed state” for more than four hours and whirl wildly in the 50 mph gusts, the manufacturers began an inquiry.
After detecting winds of 55 mph, the electricity generators are meant to immediately shut off.
‘A Root Cause Analysis investigation determined that a technical issue, starting within an Uninterrupted Power Supply cabinet for one of the blades, triggered an unprecedented chain of events in rapid succession,’ a Nordex spokesman said.
This rendered all three of the wind turbine’s blades powerless, causing them to remain in a fixed condition. It also disabled the backup power supply to each blade of the pitch system.
As the wind speed rose that day, the wind turbine entered an overspeed situation before collapsing.
The loud bang, according to the villagers, woke them up at approximately 6.50 a.m. on a Monday in February and reverberated across the valley below.
Up until one of its ten turbines was destroyed, the 2013-opened Pant y Wal wind farm produced enough electricity for 18,000 houses.
‘A boom like thunder early hours,’ said villager Ricky Williams.
Other people expressed concern about the safety of the turbines in light of the fall.
All of the Pant-Y-Wal wind farm’s turbines were examined by Nordex, who concluded that “any possibility of a human damage was assessed to be negligible” and that “no further action was taken at the farm.”
A Nordex representative said, “Temporary steps are being done to further limit the possibility.” To reduce the residual chance, a long-term solution is being created.