[This article was last updated on 10 January following a statement received from RWE.]
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A part of a blade from one of the wind turbines at the Humber Gateway offshore wind farm in the UK has broken off after the wind turbine blade sustained damage.
According to information in a Notice to Mariners from Humber Gateway OWF Control Room, the part of the damaged blade, approximately 20 metres long, has fallen into the sea and is likely adrift or submerged. The Notice was issued on 8 January, with the part that detached reported as unaccounted for.
Drift analysis has shown that the 20-metre part of the damaged blade likely drifted offshore in a westerly direction, according to the Notice, which also states that no further deterioration from the blade itself was expected.
“There was an issue with one of the turbine blades at Humber Gateway windfarm in late December. A section of the blade had detached from the turbine. The Turbine is off and authorities were alerted and a Notice to Mariners issued at the time of the incident. No one was injured or in the area and our operations team continues to monitor the situation,” a spokesperson from RWE said in a statement to offshoreWIND.biz.
The part of the blade that broke off has not yet been retrieved and the investigation into the cause is still underway, according to RWE.
“There is a planned campaign of blade replacement and the affected turbine will be replaced when component and jack up are available,” the company’s spokesperson said.
Located 8 kilometres off the Holderness on the East Yorkshire coast, the 219 MW Humber Gateway comprises 73 Vestas V112 3.0 MW wind turbines and has been in operation since 2015.
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In the fourth quarter of 2020, RWE signed an agreement with Greencoat to sell a part of the offshore wind farm. Following the transaction, Greencoat acquired a 49 per cent stake and RWE retained 51 per cent, remaining the majority shareholder and continuing to operate the offshore wind farm.
The operations and maintenance (O&M) base for Humber Gateway is located in Grimsby.
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