Wind turbine nacelle catches fire at Windy Hill wind farm in Ravenshoe

What happened

A wind turbine nacelle caught fire at the Windy Hill wind farm near Ravenshoe, Queensland. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services crews attended from around 3pm and worked to contain the blaze, remaining on site to prevent it spreading into surrounding grassland. The fire was confined to the nacelle, the housing that contains the turbine's generating components, and was extinguished. A Ratch spokesperson said there were no injuries to Ratch or TWPS personnel or the public, and that the company was not aware of any property damage or interruption to local electricity supply.

Emergency services established an exclusion zone around the affected turbine as a precaution. It was reported as the first fire at the 20-turbine wind farm since it began operating in 2000. The cause was not known at the time of reporting, with the operator stating that technicians would carry out an investigation.

Contributing factors

Not reported. The operator stated the cause would not be known until an investigation by technicians was completed.

Lessons learned

1. A nacelle fire at a wind turbine must be fought from inside or by remote means, so operators should fit early detection and automatic isolation.
2. A nacelle fire can spread to dry grassland, so an exclusion zone and rapid liaison with fire services must be in the emergency plan.
3. A fire at a 20-turbine site with no prior incidents since 2000 still requires full investigation before restarting the turbine.

More lessons on structural integrity and turbines, investigation and fleet-wide checks, from every incident on the register.

Not yet known

• Turbine model and age
• Duration of any outage
• Cost of repairs

This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.

Source

qmeb.com.au