15-ton wind turbine blade crashes to ground in Bavaria, no injuries

A 15-ton rotor blade has snapped off a wind turbine near Berching in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria and crashed to the ground - the first such incident in the blade owner's 30-year history, the firm reported on Thursday.

No one was injured, a spokeswoman for the Regensburg-based company Windpower said. She said work to determine the cause was proceeding at full speed, with the company's technicians supported by an independent expert. Police said they had temporarily closed a nearby road.

The accident occurred at the community-owned wind farm near Berching. The affected turbine was built in 2012 and was last serviced in November, according to the company. The turbine stands more than 140 metres tall, with rotor blades of nearly 60 metres in length. Several media outlets had already reported on the damage.

Falling rotor blades are extremely rare

While accidents do occur from time to time, wind turbines are generally considered very safe. According to the Bavarian state government, such damage is rare.

The TÜV inspection association recorded around 50 serious incidents involving wind turbines per year across Germany, out of approximately 30,000 turbines in operation.

"The probability of a rotor blade breaking off or another serious incident occurring is therefore less than 2 per mille (0.2%)," according to an information page on wind turbine safety published by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs in Munich.