Stockholm:
A 230-meter (755 feet) tall wind turbine in Arctic Sweden came crashing down on the snow during the weekend as high winds swept across the region, officials said Monday.
No one was injured.
The white tower, blades and turbine, built by Denmark-based group Vestas, collapsed Saturday evening near the remote small town of Skelleftea.
It was part of a planned 72-wind mill farm with some of the power plants intended to start operating in December.
It was not clear whether the collapsed wind mill was working or whether it was under construction at the time of the collapse.
The cause of the accident is unknown and the company is assembling a team that will investigate at the site, spokesman Anders Riis said on Monday by phone. A lot of snow is expected this week, which may delay the work, he said. No one was injured in the incident.
Maria Roske, chief executive of windmill operator WPD, told the local Norran newspaper that there were no construction workers on site when the incident happened.
She added that she believed it was the first time such an incident took place in Sweden.Roske told Norran that Vestas will investigate the collapse because the group built the wind turbine. with Vestas, which is the manufacturer. It''s their power plant, their turbine.”
Sweden is turning to the most mature renewable energy source to replace old nuclear reactors. Four reactors have shut since 2015 and several regional fossil-fuel plants have also closed. Wind output in Sweden is expected to grow by almost 50% this year to 29 terawatt-hours and to as much as 45 terawatt-hours in 2023. That would be about a third of Swedish electricity demand.
“Today, even risk-averse institutional investors see onshore wind farms as a safe asset class, particularly in established markets like Sweden.News like this proves that it is impossible to completely eliminate construction risk, even as the industry matures,”said Oliver Metcalfe, an onshore wind analyst at BloombegNEF in London. “
The 4.2-megawatt Vestas V150 turbine, among the biggest onshore facilities in the world , was one of 17 at Aldermyrberget built by developer WPD Scandinavia AB. The facility was due to start operations next month, according to information on its website. Some of the turbines have already been sending power to the grid.
Vestas has installed more than 75,000 turbines and it’s “extremely rare” that accidents like this happen, Riis said.
“We have a very comprehensive investigation process for incidents like this and we initiated that yesterday,” he said. “Now we will start collecting information and get the right people to the site.”
Investment in the wind park is probably in the region of $90 million, Metcalfe estimated. The power has already been sold via a long-term contract to a large industrial company in Sweden.