Third turbine failure in three years at North Fork Ridge Wind Farm, Missouri

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 blades were on the ground. No individuals were near the site at the time and no injuries were reported. Liberty Utilities secured the site and stated it was assessing the situation. This is the third turbine failure event at the same wind farm in under three years: a November 2023 lightning strike caused two blades to detach from a turbine, and a January 2024 incident saw a turbine's blades and base collapse entirely into a pile of debris. The wind farm, completed in early 2021, comprises 69 turbines around 400 feet tall, extending to about 600 feet with blades.

The cause of the July 2026 collapse had not been determined at the time of reporting. A prior failure at the same site in November 2023 was attributed to a lightning strike. The cause of a January 2024 full turbine collapse at the site was not reported.

1. Repeated structural failures at the same site over a short period warrant a comprehensive fleet-wide inspection rather than treating each event in isolation.
2. Operators should establish and communicate clear exclusion zones around turbines given the risk of falling blades or base failure.
3. Lightning protection systems and blade attachment integrity should be reviewed where a site has experienced a lightning-related failure, to reduce recurrence risk.

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