Wind turbine blades crash to ground in Perth
The turbine blades fell off at about 01:00 on Friday
- Published
The blades of a 77m (253ft)-high wind turbine in Perth that has been operational for less than a year have crashed to the ground.
The turbine blades at insurance and investment company Aviva's Pitheavlis site fell off the tower on Friday morning.
Aviva said its on-site security team were made aware of the incident shortly before 01:00 and said an "engineering fault" appeared to be the cause.
The turbine was officially opened by Aviva group CEO Amanda Blanc and First Minister John Swinney last November.
Aviva said it was working with the turbine supplier to determine the cause of the incident
An Aviva spokesperson said: "Thankfully no-one was injured in the incident, and of course safety remains our top priority.
"As part of the repair and recovery operation, the wind turbine tower will be taken down in the near future, likely over this weekend, weather permitting.
"This will enable us to expedite our investigation in terms of what went wrong and start developing a plan to restore the turbine to full operation as quickly as possible."
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it sent one appliance to the site at 02:00.
A spokesperson said: "There was no sign of smoke or fire and the crew ensured the area was safe before leaving."
Aviva group CEO Amanda Blanc and First Minister John Swinney officially opened the turbine last November
The company said last year that the Perth site had taken "a significant step towards achieving net zero operations" with the opening of the turbine, which was named Aurora by pupils of Viewlands Primary School.
It said the turbine was expected to deliver "100% of the site's electricity demand, including electric vehicle charging".
Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser described the incident as "unbelievable".
He said: "Fortunately, there were no casualties, but it could have been much worse. There is a real danger to people and wildlife.
"It is private land, and people shouldn't be there but there is risk of children wandering in at night.
"We need an urgent inquiry into this shocking incident."