Speculation over what caused the mysterious destruction of an Ecotricity operated wind turbine in northern England - with everything from alien UFOs to the freezing winter weather taking the blame - has now been put to rest. The turbine manufacturer Enercon has published preliminary results of its investigation saying that a broken bolt was responsible for the mishap. The bolt itself was not to blame, says Enercon, but components around it. The turbine came loose after bolts attaching it to the hub failed, but definitely not because of a collision, examination of the components has revealed. The interim report goes no further than to say that material fatigue was the cause of the incident, but they are now carrying out further tests to establish what caused the bolts to come loose, focusing on the blade and hub components to which they were attached. If one of these failed, the bolts could have been put under unbearable stress.
The orgy of entertaining but otherwise fact-free speculation arose after a 65 ft blade broke away from the wind turbine one night in January, and another was bent out of shape. Local residents near the wind farm in Conisholme, Lincolnshire, had reported seeing orange-yellow spheres trailing octopus-like "tentacles" on the night of the incident, sparking speculation that it had it had fallen victim to low-flying aliens.The Sun newspaper reported that the blade had 'disappeared' which gave a spurious credence to the alien story that remained undiminished after the broken off blade was almost immediately discovered on the ground nearby.
The alien stories were further nourished by the apparent willingness of Ecotrity's founder, Dale Vince, to consider paranormal explanations. But his tongue was firmly in his cheek, a fact that his mass media interviewers found convenient to ignore. Other causes of the damage mooted at the time included collision with a conventional aircraft or even with a block of 'blue ice' dropped from a passenger jet, and – amazingly – that alien capable of interstellar flight were trying to steal our wind turbine technology.
Industry observers were more sanguine. Fraser McLachlan of GCube, which insures more than 25000 wind turbines, said at the time that a simple mechanical failure was the most likely explanation. "You get three or four cases of things like this a year. They are machines and machines are going to break," he said.
Ecotricity plans to release the manufacturer's full report into the accident when it is published in a few weeks. The damaged turbine was repaired within days of the accident at Enercon's expense.
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