Investigators still looking for cause of wind turbine collapse

Fenner (WSYR-TV) - Teams of engineers are still trying to figure out what caused one of the huge Fenner wind turbines to collapse in late December.

Piece by piece engineers are going over the wreckage of what was once a 328 foot tall, 187 ton wind turbine. The key section, however, will only be accessible when it's all cut up and removed.

They're anxious to get to the hole left in the foundation where the turbine separated from the base, but so far nobody's been able to access that spot. More than a month after the crash they still have no answers on what caused the giant turbine to come crashing down.

"They have kept us very well informed, I've got to applaud them for that,” said Fenner Town Supervisor Russell Cary. “They had an executive come in all the way from Boston for our Free Center and he also came to my Madison County Energy Committee meeting at Morrisville College just to catch us up, answer questions."

While the cleanup goes on at the site, they have continued to keep the other 19 wind turbines shut down until they get a better idea of what happened. “This is a lesson and we're going to learn. All the engineering in the world, nothing beats hindsight. I think they're doing a good job of really analyzing it and setting up to make the whole process better going forward,” said Cary.

With more and more turbines popping up as wind power becomes more common, there will likely be people from around the world interested in what did cause this collapse.

Enel North America, which operates the wind farm, had hoped to have a determination by the end of last month. Now, it says it’s unclear when the company will have something final.