Sinking Offshore Wind Turbines

A design flaw could mean that hundreds of wind turbines are sinking. The turbine design problem affects offshore wind turbines meaning they could be slowly sinking into the sea.

It is understood that concrete used to fix some wind turbines to their steel foundations can wear away. This erosion then causes te turbines to drop by a few inches. This fault was discovered at a wind farm in the Netherlands. Wind turbines with single cylinder foundations are the ones which are affected by this flaw.

Energy companies are now looking into the issue to discover how many wind turbines are affected and how badly. Should repairs need to be made to any of the turbines, they will need to be shut down whilst they are being fixed. However it is understood that the flaw is not dangerous and will not affect operational or safety issues.

The bill for fixing the affected wind turbines is unknown – partly because no-one knows yet which turbines are affected.