Deer Island wind turbine spins out of control for several hours after mechanical issue - The Boston Globe
Deer Island wind turbine spins out of control for several hours after mechanical issue - The Boston Globe
A 100-foot wind turbine on Deer Island spun out of control for several hours Monday after high winds broke its breaking mechanism, officials said.
Around 10 a.m., the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority was notified by a passerby that one of two turbines near the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant “had something hanging from one of the blades,” according to a statement from the agency.
The 600-kilowatt turbine had been out of service since April 2022 and was locked in place by a brake, officials said.
“Although it’s too soon to speculate on what happened, it appears that this morning’s strong winds broke the braking mechanism and the turbine began to free spin,” the statement said.
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Crews stopped and secured the spinning turbine at around 3 p.m., officials said.
The second turbine has been shut off as a precaution, officials said. Public access in the area of the machines remains temporarily closed “out of an abundance of caution.”
“There are no operational issues associated with this and no damage has been done to the facility,” the agency said.
Emergency crews are on the scene of Deer Island due to an ‘issue’ with one of the wind turbines.— Boston 25 News (@boston25)
📹 David Grinches https://t.co/gACAL8N0al pic.twitter.com/OZDrc2Denx May 29, 2023
Deer Island windmill having some issues today.— Haiku Wednesday (@HaikuWednesday)
Breaking a bit in the high winds.... #DeerIsland pic.twitter.com/KgkYM9uxKs May 29, 2023
Kate Armanini can be reached at kate.armanini@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @KateArmanini.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: wind
Decades of government support for the development of wind energy has resulted in lower costs and a rapidly growing share of electricity generated by wind turbines. Wind in 2019 accounted for 7.3 percent of electrical generation, surpassing for the first time hydropower at 7.0 percent.