MidAmerican is investigating the cause of a fire that occurred inside the nacelle of a turbine at its Diamond Trail wind farm in the US.
The fire occurred yesterday within one of the Vestas V110-2.0. machines at the project which began operating in 2020 and is located in Iowa County in eastern Iowa.
A MidAmerican spokesperson told reNEWS that at around 12:40AM local time, a caller contacted the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office about the fire.
The sheriff’s office and Williamsburg Fire Department then responded and secured the area, with no injuries having occurred.
The spokesperson said: “Safety is our highest priority, and we are working with the turbine manufacturer, Vestas-American Wind Technology, to determine what occurred.
“As a precaution, we have taken several other turbines offline in the immediate area and will conduct additional inspections, as necessary.”
“An incident such as this is an extremely rare occurrence-throughout our fleet we have experienced only one other fire of this magnitude in the nearly 20 years since we began operating our first wind farm.
“We are doing everything we can, along with the manufacturer, to ensure our wind turbines are operating safely to provide our customers with affordable and reliable clean energy.
“We thank the first responders in Williamsburg and Iowa County for their efforts overnight to keep the area safe and secure.”
MidAmerican operates more than 3,400 wind turbines at 37 sites in 32 counties across the state.