Vattenfall is investigating an accident that resulted in components falling into the sea during planned maintenance at the 150MW Ormonde offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea.
A company spokesperson said that no-one was injured during the incident and the relevant authorities were alerted immediately.
“In addition to determining what happened, our attention is focused on ensuring that any debris in the sea or washing up onshore is cleaned up as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
Vattenfall has engaged an environmental management company to help with the clean up and to map where the currents might take the debris.
Once the company had a good idea of this, local communities on shore were alerted.
Bad weather has so far meant that an undersea survey has not taken place and so the jack-up vessel is on site still until the survey takes place and it is safe for the ship to move.
Following the survey, will be a salvage operation followed by repairs to the turbine, but there is not a timeline for this as yet.
Ormonde features 30 Senvion 5MW turbines and has been operational since 2011.