- The turbine was torn apart by the raging winds and collapsed to the floor
- Families in a nearby village in South Wales said the bang sounded like thunder
- Manufacturers Nordex launched an investigation after it went into overdrive
A £2m wind turbine was knocked over by the wind after raging storms and 50mph gales made the blades on the 300ft rotary to turn at twice their normal speed.
The turbine, which was almost the size of St Paul’s Cathedral, was torn apart by the raging winds and eventually collapsed to the floor in February.
Families in the nearby village of Gilfach Goch, South Wales, said the noise sounded like ‘thunder and lightning.’
An investigation, launched by manufacturer Nordex, found a power failure caused the blades to run in an ‘overspeed condition’ for more than four hours and rotate uncontrollably in the 50mph winds.
The energy generators are supposed to automatically switch off after it detects winds of 55mph.
A spokesman for Nordex said: ‘A Root Cause Analysis investigation determined that a technical issue, starting within an Uninterrupted Power Supply cabinet for one of the blades, triggered an unprecedented chain of events in quick succession.
‘This disabled the main power supply and the backup power supply to each blade of the pitch system, therefore all three blades of the wind turbine were left without power resulting in a fixed state.
‘The wind speed conditions on the day increased putting the wind turbine into an overspeed condition until it collapsed.’
Villagers said the huge noise woke them at around 6.50am on a Monday morning in February and echoed around the valley below.
The 10-turbine Pant y Wal wind farm opened in 2013 make enough power for 18,000 homes until the one was wrecked.
Villager Ricky Williams described it as ‘a bang like thunder early hours.’
Other villagers said they were worried over the safety of the turbines following the collapse.
Nordex inspected all the turbines at Pant-Y-Wal wind farm – and said ‘any likelihood for human injury was considered to be low and no further action was taken at the farm.’
A spokesperson for Nordex added: ‘Temporary measures are being implemented to reduce the likelihood further. A permanent solution is being developed to mitigate the residual likelihood.’
