Statement on the collapse of a wind turbine in Haltern AV9 wind park (Germany)

After the site of the incident in Haltern AV9 wind park in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, has been thoroughly secured, an interdisciplinary group of experts have now taken the next step into the root-cause analysis on site.

On 29 September 2021, a N149/4.0-4.5 turbine almost completely collapsed in the 9MW wind park. The turbine was installed on a 164m hybrid tower in January and was commissioned on 11 March.

Nobody was injured through the incident. In co-operation with the authorities in charge, all necessary safety measures were initiated immediately after the incident.

As a precaution, all turbines of identical configuration have temporarily been shut down until details for the causes of the collapse become available. This includes a further 22 turbines which have exclusively been installed in Germany or are presently being installed there.

On the basis of drone videos and in co-operation with insurance companies and the authorities in charge, the site has been further secured to allow the interdisciplinary expert team safe access to the site. A detailed analysis of the components, especially tower segments and rotor blades, is now under way. The recovery of the bottom box is planned for the middle of the week, which is then to allow an analysis of the turbines’ bottom box data at the time of the incident.

A quick and thorough investigation, in co-operation with the authorities in charge, as to what caused the collapse is top priority. At the moment there are no indications as to the causes, investigations are conducted in all directions and are expected to take some time.