Turbine blade breaks, falls to ground at wind farm damaged by lightning strike in 2019

A wind turbine blade has broken and fallen to the ground at the 228MW Lal Lal wind farm in Victoria, less than seven years after a similar incident at the same project was caused by a lightning strike.

The blade break, which occurred early on Friday morning, was first reported by local Facebook groups as an “explosion,” but the project’s co-owner, Atmos Renewables, told Renew Economy that there are no immediate signs of further damage to the nacelle other than the snapped blade.

“At approximately 6.45am on Friday, 15 May 2026, a blade failure occurred at turbine Y23 at the Yendon Wind Farm,” a statement from Atmos says, referring to one of the two sections that make up Lal Lal (the other is called Elaine).

“The area has been secured with an exclusion zone in place, and there were no injuries or risk to the public. We are working closely with all relevant stakeholders and authorities to safely manage the incident.”

The Lal Lal wind farm is located south-east of Ballarat on two sections of farmland in the Moorabool Shire: the Yendon Section (2km east of Yendon) and the Elaine Section (2km north of Elaine).

The project reached financial close in mid-2018, when Macquarie sold two 40 per cent equity stakes in the project – one each to InfraRed Capital Partners and Northleaf Capital Partners.

Atmos Renewables entered the picture in 2022, when its parent company Igneo Infrastructure Partners acquired a 60 per cent controlling stake in Lal Lal, with the remaining 40 per cent still held by Northleaf.

One of the project’s 3.6 megawatt (MW) wind turbines suffered a blade break back in September 2019, also in the Yendon section, which the project’s wind turbine supplier, Vestas, ultimately determined had been caused by a lightning strike.

The cause of this week’s blade break is yet to be determined.

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