Vestas onshore wind turbine blade failures across US sites 2024
2024Published 1 May 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- onshore wind sites in the United States
- Manufacturer
- Vestas
- What
- three blade shatter or detach incidents
- Injuries
- None reported
- Outcome
- affected turbines taken out of service
Get the next one by email
Free alerts on wind (onshore) incidents worldwide, and an email when EIR-0007 is updated. No account needed; unsubscribe in one click.
Confirm your email and every wind turbine incident on the register arrives at once as a spreadsheet (CSV), free.
Get a free sample brief Three complete verified records and the incidents-per-GW table, by email within a minute.
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 signing up you agree to the privacy policy.
Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): Vestas
What happened
During 2024, publicly available industry reporting described three separate incidents at onshore wind sites in the United States (multiple sites) involving Vestas turbines of the same type, the most recent in November 2024. In each case a blade shattered or detached, and in some cases there was also significant damage to the nacelle. No injuries or fatalities were reported in the public accounts. The sites were reported to have taken the affected turbines out of service.
The grouping of three similar failures within a single calendar year across one Vestas turbine fleet attracted industry and media attention. This entry records only the publicly observable pattern. Formal root cause findings for the individual incidents were not in the public domain at the time of writing.
Contributing factors
No published investigation findings were available for any of the three incidents, so no contributing factor can be attributed from public information. For background only, general industry literature on blade and structural failures identifies recurring categories including latent manufacturing defects, loading beyond the design envelope during extreme weather, lightning strike damage that propagates during subsequent operation, tower or foundation defects, and control system anomalies permitting overspeed. None of these has been linked to the incidents described here.
Lessons learned
- Three similar blade failures in one Vestas fleet in a year require fleet wide engineering review and inspection without waiting for separate reports.
- Record blade serial numbers and repair history per turbine so common factors can be found quickly after repeated events.
- Set exclusion zones and access controls where blade detachment is possible and confirm throw distance assumptions.
More lessons on structural integrity and turbines, from every incident on the register.
Not yet known
- Root cause of each blade failure
- Specific turbine model and age
- Duration of turbine downtime
- Cost of repairs and lost generation
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Source
Published 2026-05-01. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
