Following reports at the weekend that blades from a Evoco wind turbine flew off three structures in the recent winds, and that despites an order to be braked, some of the turbines were still spinning in the gales, Evoco has released the following statement:
‘Evoco Energy, manufacturers of small scale wind turbines, confirm that we have recently experienced a series of turbine faults in a localised area of rural West Yorkshire area during record-breaking high winds. No one was hurt in the incidents, which are being investigated thoroughly. Health and safety issues are of primary importance to us, and we work to rigorous standards to maintain our excellent record.
Evoco Energy's Fraser Marwick. The company has issued a statement about it wind turbines
Due to the forecasts of exceptionally strong winds, and following a previous recent problem with a rotational bearing, we had asked all of our customers to temporarily apply the brakes to their turbines to prevent serious damage while we implemented measures to address the problem.
Due to the forecasts of exceptionally strong winds, and following a previous recent problem with a rotational bearing, we had asked all of our customers to temporarily apply the brakes to their turbines to prevent serious damage while we implemented measures to address the problem.
Although a brake request had been issued, three incidents occurred during winds of up to 111 miles per hour. In each case, a turbine lost blades, due to the bearing issue for which we had instructed the turbines to be shut down. In each case the blades landed within the boundary of the turbine owner’s property, although it appears that in one case, the hurricane force winds subsequently blew blades onto neighbouring property on the opposite side of a minor rural road.
We are now investigating why some of our customers’ turbines were spinning in high winds, despite the brakes being applied.
Evoco turbines have recently weathered three lots of hurricane force winds, in which the overwhelming majority our turbines have operated without any problems. Where we have experienced isolated issues, we have dealt with these by increasing the safety margins in our design, and we expect our final modifications, which we have already begun to deploy to all our turbines, to reduce the failure rate to zero. In the meantime, as a responsible operator, we have taken the precaution of keeping our turbine fleet on brake until the modifications are performed. We are compensating our customers for any loss of income.’
