Danish turbine manufacturer Vestas has completed blade repairs at Algonquin Power’s under-construction 150MW Deerfield wind project in Michigan.
Two blades on separate turbines broke in half in the fall. There were no injuries or subsequent damage.
An investigation revealed “an anomaly in the manufacturing process that resulted in a cavity in the blade shell support structure where the blades broke,” Vestas told reNEWS.
“Corrective actions in manufacturing and quality processes have been implemented by Vestas to ensure this failure mechanism does not occur again,” said the manufacturer.
Vestas replaced the two broken blades plus a third that couldn’t be repaired in the field.
In addition, several other blades with the same manufacturing anomaly were “proactively” repaired on site “out of an abundance of caution”, said Vestas.
The Deerfield wind farm features a mix of V110 2MW and 2.2MW machines and is in the final stages.
“Construction is complete and commissioning is nearing completion,” Algonquin spokesperson Alison Holditch told reNEWS.
Deerfield was initially expected online in late 2016 and is now is expected to start commercial operation in the next three to four weeks.
Image: Vestas
Vestas wraps up Deerfield repair
Commissioning nearing completion at 150MW wind farm in Michigan
By EBS