DNV GL discusses the impact recent earthquakes have on wind turbines, keeping in mind that earthquakes induced loads must be considered for wind turbines. With low ground accelerations no damage is expected to the wind power plant regions, and no damage has been reported until today. Yet, DNV GL commented that ‘many renewable energy projects lie near active faults and could be impacted by an earthquake at any time.’
Specifically, the only known damage caused to wind turbines due to a tremor was in 1986, during the North Palm Springs earthquake. The incident resulted to a small number of turbines suffering damage, which were primarily consisting of buckling of some of the segmented tower walls which resulted in tilting of the structures, but no overturning and collapse of the towers was reported.
Today’s turbines are different that the past’s, and from the 1986’s earthquake no catastrophic loss of a wind turbine has been recorded, in any earthquake.
In addition, the closest incident where seismic activity was reported to impact a wind turbine was when the ground surrounding a wind turbine foundation liquefied during the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake resulting in minor tilt of the foundation.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
DNV GL reported that infrastructure, as substations, seems to be more fragile. Thus, it is of a great importance that wind turbines continue to be properly designed for earthquakes to continue good performance as wind energy become more widespread.
Moreover, the recent strong magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 seismic events near Ridgecrest, California, which were felt in the wind power plant regions of Southern California, remind us that earthquakes induced loads must also be considered for wind turbines.
The shaking in Tehachapi and Palms Springs was relatively low, with a peak ground acceleration of 0.03 g and 0.016 g, respectively. With such low ground accelerations, no damage is expected to the wind power plant regions and none has been reported to date.
