MHI Vestas Dismantles Østerild Prototype After Fire Incident

MHI Vestas took down its V164 prototype in Østerild on 15 August, after the wind turbine caught fire on 4 August and the turbine manufacturer started an investigation to determine the root cause of the incident.

The investigation unit recommended to MHI Vestas that the safest and most effective way to determine the root cause is to take the turbine down. The root cause has not yet been determined and the company said it will continue the investigation in earnest now that the turbine is down.

There is no timetable for the conclusion of the investigation.

Torben Hvid Larsen, Chief Technology Officer at MHI Vestas, said: “We looked at many different scenarios with the investigative teams on how best to determine and confirm the root cause of the incident. We are following the recommendation of the lead investigators who have tremendous expertise in this area and have decided this is the best course of action for the investigation to continue.”

MHI Vestas did not specify the V164 prototype capacity, however, according to the information on the the Østerild Test Centre’s website, the recently launched 9.5MW unit is the V164 model being tested at the site.