Why Super Typhoon Yagi wrecked 1 wind farm in China but the rest stood their ground

Super Typhoon Yagi – the world’s second most powerful tropical cyclone this year – left a deadly trail of destruction as it swept across southern China last week.

However, while one wind farm was badly wrecked – the rest stood strong.

This came as no surprise to one Chinese wind energy expert, who said: “Typhoons are no longer an insurmountable environmental constraint for China’s wind power development”.

Yagi packed winds of around 245km/h (152mph) near its centre when it made landfall on Friday in Wenchang, in China’s southern island province of Hainan. A wind farm in the city was hit head-on, leaving several turbines lined up along the coastline battered and broken.

The farm was not in operation at the time, as it is undergoing an upgrade that will replace 32 small wind turbines with 16 larger and more efficient typhoon-resistant versions.