Wind turbine collapses at Raleigh wind farm in Chatham-Kent, Ontario

A wind turbine collapsed overnight on 18 to 19 January 2018 at the 78 megawatt Raleigh wind project in Chatham-Kent, southwestern Ontario. Images from the scene showed the tower buckled nearly in half with the blades in a heap nearby. Terraform Power, the Maryland-based renewable energy company that owns the project, said the collapse caused no injuries and had no impact on the broader community. The company said it had secured the immediate area around the failed turbine and taken the full facility offline as a precaution while it conducted a site inspection and investigated the cause. A provincial lawmaker who has long been critical of wind power called for a moratorium on two other regional wind projects following the incident. At the time of reporting, the cause of the structural failure had not been determined.

Not reported in this source; the cause of the tower collapse was under investigation at the time of publication.

1. A single turbine failure can justify precautionary shutdown of an entire facility pending inspection, limiting risk while the root cause is established.
2. Securing the immediate area around a failed structure is an appropriate immediate response to protect public safety.
3. Prompt public communication about injuries and community impact can help manage stakeholder and political concern after a visible structural failure.

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