Offshore Wind Accident: Orsted Asks for ‘No-Sail Zones’ After Turbine Breaks Into Sea

Offshore wind developer Orsted is asking relevent authorities to establish ‘no-sail zone’ at some of its offshore wind farms after a catastrophic failure of an offshore wind turbine at a Danish offshore wind farm.

Orsted report Wednesday that a rotor and three blades separated from the nacelle of one of the offshore wind turbines at its 400 megawatt (MW) Anholt Offshore Wind Farm and fell into the sea. No injuries were reported from the accident. But as a precautionary measure, Orsted is requesting authories establish temporary ‘no-sail zones’ at other wind farms using the same turbines as the one that failed.

The Anholt Offshore Wind Farm was commissioned in 2013 and consists of 111 Siemens-Gamesa 3.6 MW wind turbines. Other farms using the turbines include West of Duddon Sands, Lincs, Gunfleet Sands, Burbo Bank and Walney 1 & 2, all in the UK, Borkum Riffgrund 1 in Germany, and Avedøre Holme in Denmark.

“We are investigating the cause of the incident, 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, namely a Siemens-Gamesa 3.6 MW – 4 MW wind turbine. So far, 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.”

Ørsted is one of the world’s leading offshore wind developers, constructing and operating offshore wind farms in Denmark, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and the United States. The company is aiming to install 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.