Ørsted asks for “no sail” zones following offshore wind turbine failure

Anholt Offshore Wind Farm was commissioned in 2013 [Image: Katrin Scheib/Wikimedia]

Ørsted reports that it is investigating an incident at the Anholt Offshore Wind Farm in Denmark. A rotor, including three blades, separated from the nacelle of one of the offshore wind turbines and fell into the sea. No one was injured.

“We are investigating the cause of the incident,” says Ørsted, “and as an extraordinary precautionary measure, we are requesting the relevant authorities to establish “no-sail zones” at all of our offshore wind farms that use the same turbine as at Anholt: a Siemens-Gamesa 3.6 MW – 4 MW wind turbine.

So far, says Ørsted, “the investigation has not pointed to a systemic cause of the issue, but we have taken this precautionary step as safety is our first priority. The assets continue to operate as normal with the relevant safety protocols, and customers in the relevant markets will not be affected.”

Anholt Offshore Wind Farm was commissioned in 2013 and consists of 111 Siemens-Gamesa 3.6 MW wind turbines. Besides Anholt, the offshore wind farms with “no-sail zones” are: West of Duddon Sands, Lincs, Gunfleet Sands, Burbo Bank and Walney 1 & 2, all in the U.K,, Borkum Riffgrund 1 in Germany, and Avedøre Holme in Denmark.