TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Strong winds last week are the reported culprit in the destruction of a wind turbine in Northport that was stationed to produce clean, renewable energy for the Northport Leelanau Township Water Treatment Plant.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle and other northern Michigan news outlets have described a “heap” of 25 feet of wind turbine materials sitting on the ground after the upper section broke off.

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The manager of Leelanau Community Energy, Douglas McInnis, says that the top of the turbine blew off sometime Thursday or Friday of last week. The turbine had been offline, waiting for maintenance, but he said the maintenance items should not have caused the tower to break.

The 163-foot tower had been in use in Leelanau County after being installed 12 years ago. Wind, which is needed for wind turbines, had reached almost 30 MPH in Traverse City on that Thursday according to the National Weather Service and McInnis says the assumption is that “it was probably a gust of wind that broke off the top 25 feet or so.”

Northport Trustee, Will Harper, said the wind caused the turbine to “spin out of control” and fall to the ground.

According to the Traverse City Record-Eagle McInnis said, “The turbine stood atop a hill over Northport’s wastewater treatment plant and, along with some of the company’s solar panels, supplied power to the plant.”

Luckily, the plant is connected to the electric grid so it still has power.

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The future of the wind turbine is unknown and McInnis says restoring the turbine might not be practical. They will talk to the provider of the turbine to gather more information about its future.