Multiple Vestas turbine collapses keep major US wind farm offline
Recharge News|Cosmo Sanderson|Mar 11, 2025
A major US wind farm has remained all but dormant for over four months as an investigation continues into the collapse of multiple Vestas turbines at the site, with a blade issue the likely culprit. Three V120-2.2MW machines produced by Danish turbine making giant Vestas collapsed in just six months last year at the 400MW High Prairie wind farm in the US midwestern state of Missouri.
A picture of the collapsed turbine taken by the local fire department.
A major US wind farm has remained all but dormant for over four months as an investigation continues into the collapse of multiple Vestas turbines at the site, with a blade issue the likely culprit. Three V120-2.2MW machines produced by Danish turbine making giant Vestas collapsed in just six months last year at the 400MW High Prairie wind farm in the US midwestern state of Missouri.
A picture of the collapsed turbine taken by the local fire department.
Three wind turbines made by Danish manufacturer collapsed last year at Missouri wind farm owned by local utility Ameren
A major US wind farm has remained all but dormant for over four months as an investigation continues into the collapse of multiple Vestas turbines at the site, with a blade issue the likely culprit.
Three V120-2.2MW machines produced by Danish turbine making giant Vestas collapsed in just six months last year at the 400MW High Prairie wind farm in the US midwestern state of Missouri.
The wind farm was commissioned in 2020 and is owned by US utility Ameren, which bought the site in 2021. Its 175 turbines can power 120,000 homes.
After the last of those three turbine collapses at the end of October, Vestas said that as an “e…
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Three wind turbines made by Danish manufacturer collapsed last year at Missouri wind farm owned by local utility Ameren
A major US wind farm has remained all but dormant for over four months as an investigation continues into the collapse of multiple Vestas turbines at the site, with a blade issue the likely culprit.
Three V120-2.2MW machines produced by Danish turbine making giant Vestas collapsed in just six months last year at the 400MW High Prairie wind farm in the US midwestern state of Missouri.
The wind farm was commissioned in 2020 and is owned by US utility Ameren, which bought the site in 2021. Its 175 turbines can power 120,000 homes.
After the last of those three turbine collapses at the end of October, Vestas said that as an “extraordinary precaution” the remaining turbines at the site had been paused while it conducted root cause analysis.
More details on the collapses came to light last week when David Meiners, Ameren's director of renewable operations, updated a local county commission on the status of the project.
“We had some turbines where the blades came off and the imbalance caused the turbines to fall,” he said.
On getting the site up and running again, he said Ameren has “started up wind turbines that we know are unaffected that don’t have an issue with those blades.”
As of last week, Meiners said that “about 15” turbines had been brought online of the 175 at the wind farm. Is possible the turbines include 12 Vestas V112/3450 3.45MW turbines that are also installed at the site, with the remainder being V120-2.2MW machines.
Adair County presiding commissioner Mark Shahan told local television station KTVO: "We’ve been reaching out to Ameren to see what was going on for the plan for the wind farm.”
“We don’t know for sure how many blades will need to be replaced.”
In a statement to Recharge, Vestas said the investigation into two of the turbine collapses at High Prairie is “still ongoing and out of an abundance of caution, the majority of the turbines at the site are currently idling.”
“No injuries have occurred from the incidents. Findings indicate these collapses were caused by a blade issue and limited to this specific site. Our focus remains on getting all turbines at the site safely up and running again.”