Video captures wind turbine bending and catching fire after severe storm
The site has been secured and no injuries reported, The Independent has learned
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Your support makes all the difference.A wind turbine in Oklahoma has collapsed and caught on fire after severe storms rolled through the area on Tuesday.
Video footage captured at the scene showed the massive structure bent and folded, with the rotor area smouldering.
The incident took place at the Traverse Wind Energy Center in central Oklahoma. The video shows mostly field and open skies surrounding the turbine.
The site has been secured and no injuries reported, the utility company, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, told The Independent in an emailed statement.
A thunderstorm rolled through the area on Tuesday afternoon, dropping rain and bringing wind gusts around 30 miles per hour (48 kilometres per hour), according to Weather Underground.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation, the Public Service Company of Oklahoma said.
Incidents with wind turbines have occured in the past but are rare, according to the US Department of Energy. As of 2014, less than 40 incidents had been documented among over 40,000 wind turbines, the agency said.
Oklahoma generated 35 per cent of its power from wind turbines in 2020, and produced the third-most wind power of any state, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The wind farm where the turbine collapsed reports that it produces nearly enough electricity to power 300,000 homes annually.
Wind power is a leading source of renewable energy in the United States. Unlike burning fossil fuels, it doesn’t add to the greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere which are driving the climate crisis.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a leading authority on climate science, recently warned that GHG emissions must begin to decline globally by 2025 if the world is to keep to the 1.5C temperature limit, agreed under the 2015 Paris Agreement, in the coming decades.
The planet has already warmed about 1.1-1.2C since the Industrial revolution.
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