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Images and footage of the incident published by local news station KCCI showed plumes of smoke billowing from the turbine, as flames burned through the nacelle and one of its blades, which then crashed to the ground.
Nobody was injured during the incident.
Reports said emergency responders did not have adequate equipment to reach the fire, which subsequently destroyed the nacelle. An eyewitness said the smoke from the fire was visible up to 16km away.
The fire happened at the Arbor Hill section of energy company MidAmerican’s 2GW Wind X1 project in Iowa. The project uses Vestas’ V110-2.0 MW and V150-4.2MW turbines.
A spokesperson for Vestas told Windpower Monthly: “On 17 October 2023, a V110-2.0 MW wind turbine caught fire at a wind farm in Iowa, USA. All plant and personnel are safe and accounted for, the site has been secured, and there were no injuries. Once the turbine has been deemed safe to access, Vestas will work with the customer to determine the root cause.”
The spokesperson added: “We are not concerned about the safety of other V110-2.0 MW turbines. Safety is always our priority and provided that normal procedures are followed, it is safe to work in our turbines. The main priority at this point is to determine the root cause for this incident, which is what we’re working on now in close cooperation with the customer.”
MidAmerican also confirmed details of the fire. A spokesperson said damage from the fire was limited, noting that the field where the turbine was located had recently been harvested.
“We are working with [Vestas] to determine what occurred. MidAmerican introduced wind energy in Iowa nearly 20 years ago and we now operate more than 3,400 wind turbines at 37 wind farms in 33 counties across the state. An incident such as this is an extremely rare occurrence,” a spokesperson said.
They added a message of thanks to the emergency responders who attended the fire in the first instance.
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