The fall of wind turbines increases with height. And they certainly are tumbling.
Based on a Bloomberg investigation, the number of wind turbine breakdowns is rising from Oklahoma to Sweden, Colorado to Germany, and all three leading manufacturers acknowledge that the push to produce bigger turbines has prompted production problems.
Around the world, several wind turbines taller than 750 feet are crumbling, with the tallest at 784 feet in height falling in Germany throughout September 2021.
To put it into perspective, the Space Needle in Seattle and the Washington Monument near Washington, D.C., are shorter than those turbines.
Much smaller turbines, roughly the altitude of the Statue of Liberty, kept falling in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, England, and Colorado.
General Electric, Vestas, and Siemens Gamesa, the three biggest participants in the sector, are seeing a decline in turbine production.
In October of last year, Larry Culp stated that “it takes time to stabilize the quality and production on all these new products.”
Thus according to Bloomberg, Technological growth puts pressure on the industry and a wider supply chain. We rely on industry specialists to point out the problems with wind farming because there aren’t any industry-wide statistics documenting turbines’ rise and fall.
The CEO, Fraser McLachlan
According to Fraser McLachlan, CEO of insurer GCube Insurance, “we have seen these problems occurring on the newer turbines in a shorter period of time and that’s extremely alarming.”
Production of the expanding apparatuses has accelerated due to the need to create larger wind-capturing turbines.
According to Bloomberg, Vestas has had project delays and quality concerns, Siemens has seen quality control issues with a new design, and GE has witnessed an increase in warranty expenses and repairs.
There are also ambiguous supply chain problems and shifting material prices.
The larger the turbine, the more power it can gather, with heights reaching above 850 feet, blades 300 feet long, and power generation capabilities ramping up proportionately.
But as the turbine gets bigger, more things might go wrong, and it falls farther.
