Onlookers captured the moment an onshore wind turbine in Scotland shed its blades and disintegrated amid high winds during Storm Gerrit.
Video posted by wind campaign group Scotland Against Spin (SAS) shows the 35m turbine at Auchencloigh farm in East Ayrshire spinning out of control on Wednesday, causing its blades and components to be thrown from the tower.
The site is operated by CWE Norwin Limited, a subsidiary of Constantine Wind Energy which owns and operates around 200 turbines across the UK. The unit is rated at 86.3kW and was commissioned in late 2015, according to Energy Map.
According to reports on SAS social media, the incident saw the blades break off and land in a field around 300m from a nearby property.
It’s understood emergency and maintenance crews attended the scene on Wednesday.
Constantine Wind Energy was unavailable for comment.
© Supplied by Scotland Against SpiIt occurred amid two yellow weather warnings in Ayrshire on Wednesday for heavy snow and rain, the latter of which was set to bring “very strong southeasterly winds”, according to the Met Office. A wider warning over winds was issued for Central Scotland.
Meanwhile on the east coast, flooding and high winds during Storm Gerrit have caused havoc with travel routes and left thousands without power.
Gale force winds have dealt damage to other wind farms on Scotland’s west coast in the past, including at Ardrossan wind farm where a 2MW unit caught fire during a storm in 2011.
A similar event also occurred in South Wales in 2022, when 50mph winds caused a 300ft turbine to “overspeed” – snapping its blades and ultimately collapsing the tower structure.
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