Wind turbine collapse at Ravne 1 wind farm near Pag, Croatia

One of seven wind turbines at the Ravne 1 wind farm on the island of Pag, near the town of Pag, Croatia, collapsed after high north-easterly winds, known locally as the bura and reported at around 100 kilometres per hour, hit the island. The wind farm is operated by Vjetroelektrane Pag and owned by Adria Wind Power. It was built in 2004, with WindConsult-Energieprojektberatung acting as the EPC contractor, as Croatia's first commercial wind farm. The exact cause was not established at the time of reporting, but it was assumed that one blade broke first, unbalancing the structure. Reporting indicated the roughly 25 metre blade was thrown some hundred metres away by centrifugal force while the other two blades kept rotating, further destabilising the 50 metre, 35 tonne turbine, which then collapsed. The other turbines at the site were reported undamaged. The source does not report any injuries. Damage was estimated at EUR 600,000. The wind farm has a capacity of 5.95 MW and uses seven Vestas 850 kW turbines.

Extreme wind loading from the bura, reportedly reaching around 100 kilometres per hour, together with an assumed initial blade failure that unbalanced the rotor and led to structural collapse. The operator, Vjetroelektrane Pag, stated that the exact cause was still to be determined.

1. Blade integrity monitoring matters most at sites exposed to extreme, localised wind events, and inspection intervals should reflect that exposure.
2. A single blade failure can cascade quickly into full structural collapse through rotor imbalance, so imbalance detection and automatic shutdown functions should be tested regularly.
3. Site-specific wind resilience assumptions should be revisited periodically for older turbine fleets operating in known high-wind corridors.

News report via Google News