Norwegian wind farm delays restart after Siemens Gamesa turbine breakage

The operator of an onshore wind farm in Norway has delayed its planned restart following its shutdown after a blade broke off one of the project's Siemens Gamesa 4.X turbines. 

by Orlando Jenkinson 1 July 2024

Turbines at the project were shut down after the incident (pic credit: Odal Vindkraftverk)

All turbines at the 163MW project were shut down when a blade broke off a Siemens Gamesa 4.X turbine on 10 April. 

Operator Odalvindkraftwerk had previously said the wind farm would resume operations in July after the turbine blade breakage. 

However, in an update it said operations remained shut down after investigations into what happened took longer than expected and repairs continue to be carried out. 

“Regardless of the incident in April, repairs to several turbines were planned due to production damage to the turbine blades, and this work is now well under way. A repair hall has been built, so that the turbine blades can be repaired indoors, but some of the blades are repaired at height. The hall means that we can continue the repair work even into the winter, when it becomes difficult to repair outside due to cold,” Odalvindkraftwerk stated. 

The operator added that new turbine blades were due to be received in the coming weeks, and that there was still no precise date for expected operations restart. 

The wind farm is co-owned by Norwegian power firm Akershus Energi (51%), renewables developer Cloudberry (33.4%) and pension fund KLP (15.6%).

Siemens Gamesa has faced quality control issues related to components in its 4.X and 5.X onshore wind turbines. These contributed to substantial financial losses and the suspension of onshore wind turbine sales.

The manufacturer previously said it was working with Odalvindkraftwerk to determine the cause of the breakage.