GE Wind Tower Collapsed for the Third Time in American Wind Farm This Year

As an authoritative magazine in the United States reported, the General Electric (GE) wind tower collapsed at the Upstream 200MW wind farm in Nebraska, USA on July 5th, 2019. This is the third wind tower accident that GE has experienced this year in the US wind farm. Fortunately, the accident did not cause casualties. After the incident, the GE team quickly rushed to the scene for investigation.

The Three Wind Tower Collapse Accidents in the USA Caused Widespread Concerns in Society

In May of this year, GE wind turbine collapsed in the Chisholm View 2 wind farm which is located in Oklahoma, USA. According to the investigation, this wind tower collapse was caused by the restarting process of the wind turbine.

In February of this year, GE wind tower also collapsed in the United States. The cause of this accident was attributed to the fan running in overspeed mode during high wind conditions, resulting in rotor imbalance and tower collapse.

The collapse of wind turbines has caused widespread concern in the society. Scholars at the University of Birmingham in the UK said that the wind industry needs to better understand the complex factors that can cause turbine collapse.

Ensure Safe and Stable Operation of Wind Tower via Monitoring Attitude and Foundation Settlement in Real Time

As the wind farm is usually constructed in areas with windy, harsh natural conditions and fragile ecological environment, so it is of great necessity of ensure the safe and stable operation of wind turbines. During the actual operation and maintenance of the wind tower, it is exceedingly important to monitor the tower body inclination, settlement of the concrete foundation, the torsion angle of the fan blades, the angular velocity, the displacement and vibration of the mechanical components in the gear box.

Combining technological advantages and product advantages, utilizing the attitude, position and orientation monitoring experience which are accumulated over the past 17 years, Vigor Technology is capable of providing complete attitude monitoring solutions for the wind power industry, solving the difficulty of fan yaw angle monitoring, angular velocity and displacement monitoring. It can fully meet the long-term monitoring requirements of wind turbines with high stability and high accuracy. For more information about wind turbine attitude monitoring, please go ahead to Wind Tower System Monitoring Solution and application case of SST810 inclinometer in dynamic attitude monitoring of wind towers.