Turbine at Colorado wind farm collapses, burns
A wind turbine at a northern Colorado wind farm folded in half and caught fire Thursday morning, startling neighbors who heard banging noises prior to the collapse.
The incident was reported at 8 a.m. No injuries were reported. Oil and grease from the generator caught fire after the tower's collapse.
Personnel from the Peetz and Crook all-volunteer fire departments responded. Employees from Invenergy - a Chicago-based company which first owned the wind turbine field and now operates it for the current owner, ClearWay Energy - were already at the site when firefighters arrived, according to Peetz Fire Protction District Chief Steven Schumacher.
"This is the first downed tower we've had," Schumacher said. A tower in Fleming, about a dozen miles southwest of Peetz, collapsed in 2022.
The fallen turbine is one of 19 units in the Spring Canyon II project that came online in 2014.
Schumacher confirmed the Invenergy employees ensured the fire department did not spray water on the fire until the generator had been grounded or the turbine disconnected from 480,000-volt power grid. His volunteer firefighters know not to do that, thanks in part to annual training sessions with Invenergy workers. But he appreciated the concern for his crew and the continued "good working relationship" with the turbine company.
"Their company does not allow us to go up towers with them," Schumacher explained. "The insurance liability has changed recently, is what we've been told. They are trained in up-tower self rescue. We're there for ground support, as we call it."
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The turbine is located about a quarter mile north of Logan County Roads 78 and 65. Logan County Emergency Manager Jerry Casebolt called it "a couple football fields away" from the Colorado-Nebraska state line, and joked the unit could have landed in Nebraska if it had fallen in a northerly direction.
Had that improbable scenario actually happened, the burning unit would have come to rest on Jean Meyer's property.
"When it finally came down, the neighbor closer to it than us, they felt the ground shake," Meyer told CBS News Colorado.
Meyer said her family members heard a banging sound prior to the crash of the tower. They ignored the noise, believing it was possibly construction work. But looking back now, they believe "things were letting loose."
"My son got up and went out to the door and said, 'Will you look at that...' My husband got out from underneath the planter and said, 'Holy crap.'"
They speculate a blade malfunctioned and struck the tower, causing the collapse much like the side of a soda can being poked while a person stands on it.
It was foggy and snowing at the time, Meyer said, but not windy.
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Meyer added her concerns about the wind farms in general. Although the reliable availability of clean energy is relatively new, residents of the plains have had the turbines on their horizons for almost two decades. During that time, she has seen turbine nacelles, blades and generators regularly replaced, and not recycled.
"Our country is too big and too diverse to rely on one source of energy," she said. "But I don't know if this one has been thought out. You need to have a plan to take care of stuff like that."
Casebolt said the life expectancy of the towers themselves is 25 years.
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A spokesman for Clearway Energy, Dan Hendrick, provided a statement from the company:
"On Thursday morning, a wind tower at Spring Canyon Expansion experienced a failure. There were no injuries. Invenergy immediately activated its response procedure, and worked with local response services to address the situation. We are very grateful for their prompt and professional response, and we will continue working together to investigate the incident."