Dong Energy cancels coal-fired projects

GE Wind Turbine Collapse Brazil raises safety concerns at Omega Energia's Delta VI wind farm in Maranhe3o, with GE Renewable Energy probing root-cause of turbine failure after a worker injury and similar incidents in 2024.

Key Points

An SEO focus on the Brazil GE turbine collapse, its causes, safety investigation, and related 2024 incidents.

✅ Incident at Omega Energia's Delta VI, Maranhao; one worker injured

✅ GE Renewable Energy conducts root-cause investigation and containment

✅ Fifth GE turbine collapse in 2024 across Brazil and the United States

A GE Renewable Energy turbine collapsed at a wind farm in north-east Brazil, injuring a worker and sparking a probe into the fifth such incident this year, the manufacturer confirmed.

One of the manufacturer’s GE 2.72-116 turbines collapsed at Omega Energia’s Delta VI project in Maranhão, which was commissioned in 2018.

Three GE employees were on site at the time of the collapse on Tuesday (3 September), the US manufacturer confirmed, even as U.S. offshore wind developers signal growing competitiveness with gas. 

One worker was injured and is currently receiving medical treatment, GE added.

"We are working to determine the root cause of this incident and to provide proper support as needed," it said

The turbine collapse in Brazil is the fifth such incident involving GE turbines this year, even as the UK's biggest offshore windfarm begins power supply this week, underscoring broader sector momentum.

On 16 February, a turbine collapsed at NextEra Energy Resources’ Casa Mesa wind farm in New Mexico, US, while giant wind components were being transported to a project in Saskatchewan, Canada. The site uses GE’s 2.3-116 and 2.5-127 models.

The New Mexico incident was followed by another collapse in the US — as a Scottish North Sea wind farm resumed construction after Covid-19 — this time a GE 2.4-107 unit at Tradewind Energy’s Chisholm View 2 project in Oklahoma on 21 May.

Two GE turbines then collapsed at projects in July: a 2.5-116 unit at Invenergy’s Upstreamwind farm in Nebraska on 5 July, followed by a 1.7-103 model at the Actis Group-owned Ventos de São Clemente complex in Pernambuco, north-eastern Brazil, even as tidal power in Scotland generated enough electricity to power nearly 4,000 homes.

No employees were injured in the first four turbine collapses of the year, in contrast with concerns at a Hawaii geothermal plant over potential meltdown risk.

In response to the latest incident, GE Renewable Energy added: "It is too early to speculate about the root cause of this week’s turbine collapse.

"Based on our learnings from the previous turbine collapses, we have teams in place focused on containing and resolving these issues quickly, to ensure the safe and reliable operation of our turbines."

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Electric Field-Induced Glass Softening reveals a Joule heating anomaly in silicate glass, where anode-side nanoscale alkali depletion drives ionic conduction, localized thermal runaway, melting, and evaporation, challenging homogeneity assumptions and refining materials processing models.

Key Points

An effect where electric fields lower glass softening temperature via nanoscale ionic migration and structural change.

✅ Anode-side alkali depletion creates extreme, localized heating

✅ Thermal runaway melts glass near the anode despite uniform bulk

✅ Findings refine Joule heating models and enable new glass processing

A team of scientists working with electrical currents and silicate glass have been left gobsmacked after the glass appeared to defy a basic physical law, in a field that also explores electricity-from-air devices for novel energy harvesting.

If you pass an electrical current through a material, the way that current generates heat can be described by Joule's first law. It's been observed time and time again, with the temperature always evenly distributed when the material is homogeneous (or uniform).

But not in this recent experiment. A section - and only a section - of silicate glass became so hot that it melted, and even evaporated. Moreover, it did so at a much lower temperature than the boiling point of the material.

The boiling point of pure silicate glass is 2,230 degrees Celsius (4,046 degrees Fahrenheit). The hottest temperature the researchers recorded in a homogeneous piece of silicate glass during the experiment was 1,868.7 degrees Celsius.

Say whaaaat.

"The calculations did not add up to explain what we were seeing as simply standard Joule heating," said engineer and materials scientist Himanshu Jain of Lehigh University.

"Even under very moderate conditions, we observed fumes of glass that would require thousands of degrees higher temperature than Joule's law could predict!"

Jain and his colleagues from materials science company Corning Incorporated were investigating a phenomenon they had described in a previous paper. In 2015, they reported that an electric field could reduce the temperature at which glass softens, by as much as a few hundred degrees, a line of inquiry that parallels work on low-cost heat-to-electricity materials in energy research. They called this "electric field-induced softening."

It was certainly a peculiar phenomenon, so they set up another experiment. They put pieces of glass in a furnace, and applied 100 to 200 volts in the form of both alternating and direct currents.

Next, a thin wisp of vapour emanated from the spot where the anode conveying the current contacted the glass.

"In our experiments, the glass became more than a thousand degrees Celsius hotter near the positive side than in the rest of the glass, which was very surprising considering that the glass was totally homogeneous to begin with," Jain said.

This seems to fly in the face of Joule's first law, so the team investigated more closely - and found that the glass wasn't remaining as homogeneous as it started out. The electric field changed the chemistry and the structure of the glass on nanoscale, in just a small section close to the anode.

This region heats faster than the rest of the glass, to the point of becoming a thermal runaway - where an increase in temperature further increases temperature in a blistering feedback loop.

As it turned out, that spot of structural change and dramatic heat resulted in a small area of glass reaching melting point while the rest of the material remained solid.

"Unlike electronically conducting metals and semiconductors, with time the heating of ionically conducting glass becomes extremely inhomogeneous with the formation of a nanoscale alkali-depletion region, such that the glass melts near the anode, even evaporates, while remaining solid elsewhere," the researchers wrote in their paper.

In other words, the material wasn't homogeneous any more, which means the glass heating experiment doesn't exactly change how we apply Joule's first law.

But it's an exciting result, since until now we didn't know a material could actually lose its homogeneity with the application of an electrical current, with possible implications for thin-film heat harvesters in electronics. (The thing is, no one had tried electrically heating glass to these extreme temperatures before.)

So the physical laws of the Universe are still okay, as a piece of glass hasn't broken them. But Joule's first law may need a bit of tweaking to take this effect into account, a reminder that unconventional energy concepts like nighttime solar cells also challenge our intuitions.

And, of course, it's another piece of understanding that could help us in other ways too, including advances in thermoelectric materials that turn waste heat into electricity.

"Besides demonstrating the need to qualify Joule's law," Jain said, "the results are critical to developing new technology for the fabrication and manufacturing of glass and ceramic materials."

The research has been published in Scientific Reports.

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Iran Power Outage Protests surge as electricity blackouts, drought, and a looming heat wave spark unrest in Tehran, Shiraz, and more, with chants against leadership, strikes, and sanctions-driven economic pressures mounting.

Key Points

Protests across Iran over blackouts, drought, and economic strain challenge authorities and demand accountability.

✅ Rolling blackouts blamed on drought, heat wave, and surging demand.

✅ Chants target leadership amid strikes and wage, water shortages.

✅ Legitimacy questioned after low-turnout election and sanctions.

There have been protests in a number of cities in Iran amid rising public anger over widespread electricity blackouts.

Videos on social media appeared to show crowds in Shar-e Rey near Tehran, Shiraz, Amol and elsewhere overnight.

Some people can be heard shouting "Death to the dictator" and "Death to Khamenei" - a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The government has apologised for the blackouts, which it has blamed on a severe drought and high demand.

Elsewhere, similar outages have had political repercussions, as a widespread power outage in Taiwan prompted a minister's resignation earlier this year.

President Hassan Rouhani explained in televised remarks on Tuesday morning that the drought meant most of the country's hydroelectric power plants were not operating, placing more pressure on thermal power plants, and that electricity consumption had surged as people used air conditioning to cope with the intense summer heat.

"I apologise to our dear people who have faced problems and suffering in the past few days and I urge them to co-operate [by cutting their electricity use]. People complain about power outages and they are right," Mr Rouhani said.

A video that has gone viral in recent days shows a woman complaining about the blackouts and corruption at a government office in the northern city of Gorgan and demanding that her comments be conveyed to "higher-ups like Mr Rouhani". "The only thing you have done is forcing hijab on us," she shouts.

The president has promised that the government will seek to resolve the problems within the next two or three weeks.

However, a power sector spokesman warned on Monday that consumption was exceeding the production capacity of Iran's power plants by 11GW, and said a "looming heat wave" could make the situation worse, as seen in Iraq's summer electricity crunch this year.

Iranians have also been complaining about water shortages and the non-payment of wages by some local authorities, while thousands of people working in Iran's oil industry have been on strike over pay and conditions, as officials discuss further energy cooperation with Iraq to ease supply pressures.

There was already widespread discontent at government corruption and the economic hardship caused by sanctions that were reinstated when the US abandoned a nuclear deal with Iran three years ago, even as Iran supplies about 40% of Iraq's electricity through cross-border sales.

Analysts say that after the historically low turnout in last month's presidential election, when more than half of the eligible voters stayed at home, the government is facing a serious challenge to its legitimacy.

Mr Rouhani will be succeeded next month by Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line cleric close to Ayatollah Khamenei who won 62% of the vote after several prominent contenders were disqualified, while Iran finalizes power grid deals with Iraq to bolster regional ties.

The 60-year-old former judiciary chief has presented himself as the best person to combat corruption and solve Iran's economic problems, including ambitions to transmit electricity to Europe as a regional power hub.

But many Iranians and human rights activists have pointed to his human rights record, accusing him of playing a role in the executions of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s and in the deadly crackdowns on mass anti-government protests in 2009 and 2019.

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Alberta Electricity Peak Demand surged to 10,638 MW, as AESO reported record summer load from air conditioning, Stampede visitors, and heatwave conditions, with ample generation capacity, stable grid reliability, and conservation urged during 5-7 p.m.

Key Points

It is the record summer power load in Alberta, reaching 10,638 MW, with evening conservation urged by AESO.

✅ Record 10,638 MW at 4 pm; likely to rise this week

✅ Drivers: A/C use, heat, Stampede visitors

✅ AESO reports ample capacity; conserve 5-7 pm

Consumer use hit 10,638 MW, blowing past a previous high of 10,520 MW set on July 9, 2015, said the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO).

“We hit a new summer peak and it’s likely we’ll hit higher peaks as the week progresses,” said AESO spokeswoman Tara De Weerd.

“We continue to have ample supply, and as Alberta's electricity future trends toward more wind, our generators are very confident there aren’t any issues.”

That new peak was set at 4 p.m. but De Weerd said it was likely to be exceeded later in the day.

Heightened air conditioner use is normally a major driver of such peak electricity consumption, said De Weerd.

She also said Calgary’s big annual bash is also likely playing a role.

“It’s the beginning of Stampede, you have an influx of visitors so you’ll have more people using electricity,” she said.

Alberta’s generation capacity is 16,420 MW, said the AESO, with wind power increasingly outpacing coal in the province today.

There are no plans, she said, for any of the province’s electricity generators to shut down any of their plants for maintenance or other purposes in the near future as demand rises.

The summer peak is considerably smaller than that reached in the depths of Alberta’s winter.

Alberta’s winter peak usage was recorded last year and was 11,458 MW.

Though the province’s capacity isn’t being strained by the summer heat, De Weerd still encouraged consumers to go easy during the peak use time of the day, between 5 and 7 p.m.

“We don’t have to be running all of our appliances at once,” she said.

Alberta exports an insignificant amount of electricity to Montana, B.C. and Saskatchewan, where demand recently set a new record.

The weather forecast calls for temperatures to soar above 30C through the weekend.

In northern Canada, Yukon electricity demand recently hit a record high, underscoring how extreme temperatures can strain systems.

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California Blackouts expose grid reliability risks as PG&E deenergizes lines during high winds. Mandated solar and wind displace dispatchable natural gas, straining ISO load balancing, transmission maintenance, and battery storage planning amid escalating wildfire liability.

Key Points

California grid shutoffs stem from wildfire risk, renewables, and deferred transmission maintenance under mandates.

✅ PG&E deenergizes lines to reduce wildfire ignition during high winds.

✅ Mandated solar and wind displace dispatchable gas, raising balancing costs.

✅ Storage, reliability pricing, and grid upgrades are needed to stabilize supply.

California is again facing widespread blackouts this season. Politicians are scrambling to assign blame to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) a heavily regulated utility that can only do what the politically appointed regulators say it can do. In recent years this has meant building a bunch of solar and wind projects, while decommissioning reliable sources of power and scrimping on power line maintenance and upgrades.

The blackouts are connected with the legal liability from old and improperly maintained power lines being blamed for sparking fires—in hopes that deenergizing the grid during high winds reduces the likelihood of fires. 

How did the land of Silicon Valley and Hollywood come to have developing world electricity?

California’s Democratic majority, from Gov. Gavin Newsom to the solidly progressive legislature, to the regulators they appoint, have demanded huge increases in renewable energy. Renewable electricity targets have been pushed up, and policymakers are weighing a revamp of electricity rates to clean the grid, with the state expected to reach a goal of 33% of its power from renewable sources, mostly solar and wind, by next year, and 60% of its electricity from renewables by 2030.

In 2018, 31% of the electricity Californians purchased at the retail level came from approved renewables. But when rooftop solar is added to the mix, about 34% of California’s electricity came from renewables in 2018. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems installed “behind-the-meter” (BTM) displace utility-supplied generation, but still affect the grid at large, as electricity must be generated at the moment it is consumed. PV installations in California grew 20% from 2017 to 2018, benefiting from the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Program that offers hefty rebates through 2025, as well as a 30% federal tax credit.

Increasingly large amounts of periodic, renewable power comes at a price—the more there is, the more difficult it is to keep the power grid stable and energized. Since electricity must be consumed the instant it is generated, and because wind and solar produce what they will whenever they do, the rest of the grid’s power producers—mostly natural gas plants—have to make up any differences between supply and immediate demand. This load balancing is vital, because without it, the grid will crash and widespread blackouts will ensue.

California often produces a surplus of mandated solar and wind power, generated for 5 to 8 cents per kilowatt hour. This power displaces dispatchable power from natural gas, coal and nuclear plants, resulting in reliable power plants spending less time online and driving up electricity prices as the plants operate for fewer hours of the day. Subsidized and mandated solar power, along with a law passed in California in 2006 (SB 1638) that bans the renewal of coal-fired power contracts, has placed enormous economic pressure on the Western region’s coal power plants—among them, the nation’s largest, Navajo Generating Station. As these plants go off line, the Western power grid will become increasingly unstable. Eventually, the states that share their electric power in the Western Interconnect may have to act to either subsidize dispatchable power or place a value on reliability—something that was taken for granted in the growth of the America’s electrical system and its regulatory scheme.

California law regarding electricity explicitly states that “a violation of the Public Utilities Act is a crime” and that it is “…the intent of the Legislature to provide for the evolution of the ISO (California’s Independent System Operator—the entity that manages California’s grid) into a regional organization to promote the development of regional electricity transmission markets in the western states.” In other words, California expects to dictate how the Western grid operates.

One last note as to what drives much of California’s energy policy: politics. California State Senator Kevin de León (the author served with him in the State Assembly) drafted SB 350, the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act. It became law in 2015. Sen. de León followed up with SB 100 in 2018, signed into law weeks before the 2018 election. SB 100 increased California’s renewable portfolio standard to 60% by 2030 and further requires all the state’s electricity to come from carbon-free sources by 2045, a capstone of the state’s climate policies that factor into the blackout debate.  

Sen. de León used his environmental credentials to burnish his run for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Dianne Feinstein, eventually capturing the endorsements of the California Democratic Party and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, now running for president. Feinstein and de León advanced to the general in California’s jungle primary, where Feinstein won reelection 54.2% to 45.8%.

De León may have lost his race for the U.S. Senate, but his legacy will live on in increasingly unaffordable electricity and blackouts, not only in California, but in the rest of the Western United States—unless federal or state regulators begin to place a value on reliability. This could be done by requiring utility scale renewable power providers to guarantee dispatchable power, as policymakers try to avert a looming shortage of firm capacity, either through purchase agreements with thermal power plants or through the installation of giant and costly battery farms or other energy storage means.

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Rattlesnake Ridge Wind Project delivers 117.6 MW in southeast Alberta for BHE Canada, a Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary, using 28 turbines near Medicine Hat under a long-term PPA, supplying renewable power to 79,000 homes.

Key Points

A 117.6 MW Alberta wind farm by BHE Canada supplying 79,000 homes via 28 turbines and a long-term PPA.

✅ 28 turbines near Medicine Hat, 117.6 MW capacity

✅ Long-term PPA with a major Canadian corporate buyer

✅ Developed with RES; no subsidies; competitive pricing

A company linked to U.S. investor Warren Buffett says it will break ground on a $200-million, 117.6-megawatt wind farm in southeastern Alberta next year.

In a release, Calgary-based BHE Canada, a subsidiary of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Energy, says its Rattlesnake Ridge Wind project will be located southwest of Medicine Hat and will produce enough energy to supply the equivalent of 79,000 homes.

"We felt that it was time to make an investment here in Alberta," said Bill Christensen, vice-president of corporate development for BHE Canada, in an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener.

"The structure of the markets here in Alberta, including frameworks for selling renewable energy, make it so that we can invest, and do it at a profit that works for us, and at a price that works for the off-taker," Christensen explained.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy also owns AltaLink, the regulated transmission company that supplies electricity to more than 85 per cent of the Alberta population.

BHE Canada says an unnamed large Canadian corporate partner has signed a long-term power purchase agreement, similar to RBC's solar purchase arrangements, for the majority of the energy output generated by the 28 turbines at Rattlesnake Ridge.

"If you look at just the raw power price that power is going for in Alberta right now, it's averaged around $55 a megawatt hour, or 5.5 cents a kilowatt hour. And we're selling the wind power to this customer at substantially less than that, reflecting wind power's competitiveness in the market, and there's been no subsidies," Christensen said.

Positive energy outlook

Christensen said he sees a good future for Alberta's renewable energy industry, not just in wind but also in solar power growth, particularly in the southeast of the province.

But he says BHE Canada is interested in making investments in traditional energy in Alberta, too, as the province is a powerhouse for both green energy and fossil fuels overall.

"It's not a choice of one or the other. I think there is still opportunity to make investments in oil and gas," he said.

"We're really excited about having this project and hope to be able to make other investments here in Alberta to help support the economy here, amid a broader renewable energy surge across the province."

The project is being developed by U.K.-based Renewable Energy Systems, part of a trend where more energy sources make better projects for developers, which is building two other Alberta wind projects totalling 134.6 MW this year and has 750 MW of renewable energy installed or currently under construction in Canada.

BHE Canada and RES are also looking for power purchase partners for the proposed Forty Mile Wind Farm in southeastern Alberta. They say that with generation capacity of 398.5 MW, it could end up being the largest wind power project in Canada.

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