German Police Recover Broken 20 Meter Wind Turbine Blade Drifting In North Sea

The German Federal Police collaborated with the Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV) to recover a broken wind turbine rotor blade drifting in the North Sea.

It was found between EnBW’s operational Hohe See offshore wind farm and the adjacent He Dreiht project, which is currently under construction.

Authorities were informed of the blade on July 24 after on-site work vessels tried to retrieve it but failed.

In response, a federal police patrol vessel Bad Düben (BP83) was sent to redirect shipping traffic and secure the debris.

The fragment was around 20 meters long and 2 meters wide. It was floating just beneath the water’s surface, making it invisible to standard ship radar.

If not found on time, it could have posed a serious risk of accident in the North Sea Shipping lanes.

However, removing it was not easy, as the crew had to carefully attach a towing line to one of the sections of the blade and guide it slowly towards Bad Düben.

The blade was then pulled onboard the patrol ship’s stern slipway. Given its massive size and heavy structure, saws were used to cut it into smaller pieces before it was shipped to Cuxhaven, where a crane offloaded it on July 27.

The broken section got detached from one of the turbines at the 960 MW He Dreiht offshore wind farm, located roughly 85 kilometres northwest of Borkum.

With a €2.4 billion investment, the project is a major industry milestone as Germany’s first offshore wind farm constructed entirely without government feed-in subsidies.

Designed to feature 64 Vestas V236-15.0 MW turbines, with blades measuring 115.5 meters in length, He Dreiht marks the commercial debut of Vestas’ 15 MW offshore platform.

Offshore turbine installation began in April 2025 using Cadeler’s heavy-lift vessel Wind Orca, with Wind Keeper also joining operations as the project reached roughly 70% completion.

Following the recovery, Germany’s Waterways and Shipping Administration launched an investigation into the cause of the structural failure.

Neither project developer EnBW nor turbine manufacturer Vestas has publicly confirmed whether the blade broke off during installation, pre-commissioning rotation testing, or due to a flaw or fatigue.