Every incident in public reporting where lightning struck a substation, a solar farm, a wind turbine or a battery site, each with its sources. Free to read.
46 entries so far, 20 since 2024. Confirm your email and every substation and transformer incident on the register arrives as a spreadsheet (CSV), free. One email when a new incident is reported, at most two a day, plus a Monday digest. Free, no account needed, unsubscribe in one click.
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Newest incident first. Search them, or narrow them by country, year or severity. Each entry is free to read, with what happened and its sources; the record behind it adds the cause where it is established, the part that failed, the downtime and the loss.
On the morning of Tuesday 13 October 2026, a lightning strike hit equipment at a Copel substation supplying the municipality of Mamborê, in the Centro-Oeste region of Paraná, Brazil. The strike produced an electric arc in components of the unit, causing a...
On 10 October 2026, at about 14:30 local time, lightning struck the Vinh Thai 6 substation in An Quang hamlet, Dong Son village, Quang Ngai province, Vietnam, and caused a fire. According to the source, the electrical cabinet at the substation was completely...
Overnight lightning storms sweeping western Oregon caused a fire to break out at a Portland General Electric (PGE) substation in Cornelius, Washington County. Firefighters from the Cornelius Fire Department responded early on 16 July after reports that a...
The record behind each entry: the manufacturer, integrator and operator, root cause, failure mode, downtime, losses and every source.
On 31 July 2026, around midday, a wind turbine collapsed at the North Fork Ridge Wind Farm in Barton County, Missouri, operated by Liberty Utilities. Local residents reported hearing the structure come down. The turbine's base door had broken off and all...
In May 2026 a turbine blade broke away and fell to the ground at the Lal Lal wind farm near Ballarat, Victoria. Nearby residents reported hearing a loud noise likened to an explosion, and the incident was briefly mischaracterised on social media as sabotage;...
A transformer at the Amona 220kV substation in Navelim, Sanquelim, Goa, caught fire following lightning, strong winds and heavy rain in the early hours. The resulting explosion damaged bus bars used for power transmission within the substation, destroyed...
On 12 April a blade on a wind turbine in Oga City, Akita Prefecture, broke during operation. The operator reported to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry that a lightning strike on 20 March had damaged the blade. Continued running weakened the...
A wind turbine near Ambli village in the Vijayanagara district of Karnataka, India, reportedly caught fire after being struck by lightning, according to a headline report. The underlying article could not be accessed, so details such as the extent of damage,...
A pole-mounted distribution transformer caught fire in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, igniting the utility pole and causing debris to land in nearby yards. The event left more than 900 customers without power for several hours. Dominion Energy, which operates...
A wind turbine at the La Casa Wind Farm in Stephens County, Texas, operated by NextEra Energy and owned by La Casa Wind, caught fire early on 14 February 2026 as a thunderstorm passed through the area. The Breckenridge Fire Department, which responded to the...
A lightning strike hit an electrical transformer in the Tafila Governorate, Jordan, causing it to catch fire amid thunderstorms in the area. ArabiaWeather reported the incident on 10 October 2026 in a short weather news item. The article does not give the...
A Nordex wind turbine at a site near Manchester in the United Kingdom was reported damaged after a suspected lightning strike. Parts were reported to have come off the turbine. Nordex said it was looking into the incident and that there were no injuries and...
On 11 August 2025, a lightning strike during a thunderstorm hit a power line at the intersection of Highway 17 and Shelmore Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and a nearby transformer exploded shortly afterwards. Police video showed flames at the...
On 27 February 2025, a GE Vernova Haliade-X 13 MW turbine (AW-38) at the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm off Massachusetts was struck by lightning. The turbine had previously suffered a blade failure in July 2024, when a blade detached and debris washed up...
A wind turbine at Berrybank Wind Farm, around 80km south-west of Geelong in Victoria, Australia, collapsed after strong gusts and storms. The 112m tall turbine fell, with its blades broken on the ground. The site, operated by Naturgy with Vestas as service...
In 2025, a report described an onshore wind turbine in the central United States collapsing on a day characterised as calm, and a separate turbine being struck by lightning. The report does not state whether the two events involved the same wind farm. The...
Two wind turbines on a family farm near Mechanicsville, Cedar County, Iowa, were reported struck by lightning three times in about 18 months, one of them twice. Blades were reported shattered and debris was reported spread over about 240 acres. The most...
A thunderstorm brought very large numbers of lightning strikes across Ireland from Sunday evening into Monday morning, and Met Éireann issued weather alerts. Many areas, including Co Galway, were left without power, though the source does not link those...
A fire broke out at a Duke Energy electrical substation near County Road 44 and Apiary Road in the Grand Island area of Eustis, Florida, on a Sunday evening. The fire ignited around 6:45 pm, producing large flames and thick black smoke visible from nearby...
A wind turbine at the Brock Environmental Center in Virginia Beach caught fire on 27 May 2024 after being struck by lightning, according to the Virginia Beach Fire Department. When crews arrived there were no active flames, but the turbine was smouldering....
Counted from the register on 27 October 2026. The 46 entries whose own reporting names this, of 1,897 substation and transformer entries in all. A mention in the reporting, not a finding of fault.
As the register classes each entry, from its sources.
| What happened | Entries | |
|---|---|---|
| Electrical | 23 | |
| Mechanical | 12 | |
| Thermal / fire | 10 | |
| Other | 1 |
Counted from the words of each entry's own reporting: an entry counts under each part it names, and "Not stated" means the public reporting named none. A mention, not a finding of fault.
| Part named | Entries | |
|---|---|---|
| Transformer | 14 | |
| Cable or overhead line | 4 | |
| Not stated | 31 |
| Country | Entries | |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 22 | |
| Australia | 4 | |
| Canada | 4 | |
| Ireland | 3 | |
| South Africa | 3 | |
| India | 2 | |
| United Kingdom | 2 | |
| Brazil | 1 | |
| Vietnam | 1 | |
| Japan | 1 | |
| Jordan | 1 | |
| Germany | 1 | |
| Guyana | 1 |
Type up to eight company names (operators, owners, manufacturers, contractors) and your email address. The brief comes back by email: every published lightning strike entry that names them, with its sources, and a plain line where a name has no entries. Free, once, no account.
The register holds 46 lightning strike entries from public reporting, 2011 to 2026, in 13 countries. 10 of them are fires or thermal events; the rest are electrical, mechanical, other and other incidents. Each entry lists its sources.
Where the public reporting names a part, the most common are transformer (14), cable or overhead line (4). 31 of the 46 entries name no part. The register does not guess a cause; where a fire service, regulator or the operator states one, the entry carries it and says who said it.
In the reporting the register has found, United States (22), Australia (4), Canada (4) have the most entries. 2 are in the United Kingdom. That partly reflects where the assets are built and where the press reports on them.
Yes. Sign up on this page for lightning strike incidents: one email when a new incident is reported, at most two a day, plus a Monday digest. Free, no account, and every substation and transformer incident on the register arrives as a spreadsheet when you confirm.
Public reporting on lightning strike incidents often names the site but rarely the make, the model or the cause. The register does not guess them. Where a fire service, regulator or the operator states one, the entry carries it and says who said it.
46 entries so far, 20 since 2024. Confirm your email and every substation and transformer incident on the register arrives as a spreadsheet (CSV), free. One email when a new incident is reported, at most two a day, plus a Monday digest. Free, no account needed, unsubscribe in one click.
We will also email you about the register's paid records and plans, at most once a week and three times in all. You can stop these at any time. By subscribing you agree to the privacy policy.