Faulty blade blamed for wind turbine tower collapse in Ontario
EIR-0817A wind turbine tower at the Raleigh Wind Power facility in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, buckled at the halfway point in the early morning of 19 January 2018. The entire 52-turbine facility was taken offline as a precaution while an inspection was carried out. There were no injuries. TerraForm Power, which owns the wind farm, said a review by third-party professionals and its own engineering team confirmed the collapse was caused by a single faulty blade, and that no other similar issues were identified through the review process. The facility returned to service on 28 March 2018. The incident prompted calls by two area MPPs for a provincial moratorium on further wind turbine construction in the region, while the Canadian Wind Energy Association said such failures are rare and that this was the second incident of its kind in the Canadian fleet of more than 6,400 turbines.
A single faulty blade was identified as the cause of the tower collapse, according to TerraForm Power's third-party and internal engineering review. No other contributing factors were reported.
- A single component defect, such as a faulty blade, can lead to a full structural collapse of a wind turbine tower.
- Taking a whole site offline for precautionary inspection after an isolated failure helps establish whether the fault is systemic or confined to one machine.
- Combining independent third-party review with internal engineering assessment strengthens the credibility of root cause findings communicated to regulators and the public.
Published 2026-09-15. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.