This blade fell from a wind turbine in Western Ontario in 2021. The reason is now known: Bolt failure.

Wind turbine blade crash caused by broken bolt

Farmers Forum staff

MOUNT FOREST — When a 75-ft. long wind turbine blade (photo above) crashed to the ground in Grey County back in 2021, the curious were left scratching their heads in wonderment as to how that could have happened.

Time passed and very little was ever said about it. In absence of any public provincial investigation or report, Wind Concerns Ontario last year filed a Freedom of Information request and recently discovered that the accident was caused by “bolt failure” due to “fatigue.”

Interestingly, the bolts were part of an add-on device that had been installed on the turbine almost eight weeks earlier. A device called the “PowerCone” had been attached to the wind turbine as an experiment to determine its effect on turbine efficiency and noise reduction.

The wind turbine in the Skyway 8 industrial wind power site is owned and operated by Capstone Infrastructure Corp. in Southgate Township in Western Ontario.

Ontario’s Multi Municipal Energy Working Group also filed a Freedom of Information request and reported that to date there have been nine wind turbine failures in the province.