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Wind turbine fire in Great Western, Australia
Australia Wind power
On 28 May a wind turbine in an array in Great Western, a town in the state of Victoria in the southeast of Australia, burst into flames. The fire started at about 9.30 pm. Seven County Fire Authority fire– fighting units from Ararat, Stawell and Great Western fire brigades attended the scene. CFA District 16 Commander Ben Townsend explained that the fire had been monitored by the company the previous night and crews were called back when it reignited at about 3.20 am. “CFA crews that attended did what they could to create
safety zones, and remained clear of the structure,” said Ben.
Crews were initially called out because the main body of the wind turbine was on fire. They contacted the operator of the turbines and they were shut down. Crews left the scene in the hands of the owners to monitor, and soon after 3 am they were called back because a blade had caught fire, become dislodged, and fallen to the ground.
The fire and the area around was soon brought under control; the incident and its cause will be investigated, says CFA.
RE power curtailments increasing in California USA Renewables
CAISO, the California Independent System Operator, the grid operator for most of the state, is increasingly curtailing solar and wind powered electricity generation as it balances supply and demand in the face of rapid renewables capacity growth.
The output of wind and solar generators is reduced either through price signals or, rarely, through an order to reduce output during periods of congestion, when power lines do not have enough capacity to deliver available energy, and oversupply, when generation exceeds customer electricity demand.
In 2024, CAISO curtailed 3.4 million MWh of utility-scale wind and solar output, a 29% increase from the amount of electricity
curtailed in 2023. Solar accounted for 93% of all the energy curtailed in CAISO in 2024. CAISO curtailed the most solar in the spring, when solar output was relatively high and electricity demand was relatively low, because moderate spring temperatures meant lower demand for space heating or air conditioning. In 2014, a combined 9.7 GW of wind and solar photovoltaic capacity had been built in California. By the end of 2024, that number had grown to 28.2 GW. CAISO also curtails solar generation to leave room for natural gas generation. A certain amount of natural gas generation must stay online to comply with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reliability standards and for the evening demand ramp up.
CAISO is trying to reduce curtailments in several ways: by trading with neighbouring balancing authorities to try to sell excess solar and wind power, by incorporating battery storage into ancillary services, energy, and capacity markets, by including curtailment reduction in transmission planning, and by promoting the addition of flexible resources that can rapidly respond to sudden increases and decreases in demand.
In addition, starting this year, companies are planning to use excess renewable energy to make hydrogen, some of which will be stored and mixed with natural gas for summer generation at the Intermountain Power Project’s new facility scheduled to come online in July.
Reduced expectations for floating offshore wind
Worldwide Wind power Developers are showing signs of pulling back from floating offshore wind as near-term growth expectations fall and confidence dips across parts of the value chain. These are the main findings from Westwood Global Energy Group’s annual Floating Offshore Wind Survey, which polled 166 stakeholders across the global floating wind value chain.
As developers retreat, survey respondents from across the globe suggest that it is time for governments to intervene with policies that address investment risk – a critical requirement for meeting commercial-scale ambitions.
In total, 72 % of respondents now anticipate less than 3 GW of global floating
offshore wind capacity to be operational by 2030. Respondents included engineers, product developers, investors, government organisations and the broader supply chain. The results show that while activity in 2024 – including new leasing rounds and subsidy announcements – suggested positive momentum, delivery delays, investment risk and slow policy implementation are prompting a more cautious stance across the industry. Compared to the 2024 survey, the biggest swing in optimism has come from developers who have gone from the most optimistic group to the least confident, with 63 % feeling less optimistic than in 2024. Among the reasons cited, the most prominent financial barriers were high
upfront capital costs and limited investor confidence in new technology. Among non-financial hurdles, port infrastructure, lack of standardisation of technologies and low government support levels continue to dominate.
Bahzad Ayoub, Offshore Wind manager at Westwood, said: “Progress is happening, but too slowly. The frustration across the sector stems from knowing that momentum exists – but the pace is out of sync with expectations. Floating wind must be treated as a distinct sector, not simply an extension of fixed-bottom wind and a majority of respondents think this way. The technology, timelines and investment requirements are different – and government and industry action needs to reflect that.”
www.modernpowersystems.com | June 2025 | 7
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