Third GE turbine blade breaks off at troubled wind farm

Björkvattnet wind farm in northern Sweden already suffered crane accidents during construction and two earlier blade breaks

Another blade broke off at one of the 33 GE Vernova 5.3MW-158 Cypress turbines at a wind farm in northern Sweden.

No one was hurt in the latest incident at the ill-fated 175MW Björkvattnet project, some 500km north of Stockholm, that is supplying most of its electricity to internet titan Google under a power purchase agreement (PPA).

The wind farm had already suffered crane accidents during its construction, as well as blade breaks in 2021 and 2022. A blade from the same GE model also broke off at a German wind farm in 2023.

A blade again broke off early on Friday, Lars Bryngelsson, manager for the wind farm at Nordic renewable energy company OX2, told Swedish radio station Sveriges Radio, adding he doesn’t want to speculate at this point what caused the incident.

OX2, which is managing the wind farm for French investor Infravia Capital Partners (which owns the project via local holding company Treblade), confirmed the information for Recharge.

“The damage was discovered early morning on the 13th of March when technicians were driving to the site and noticed the broken blade from the nearby departmental road,” OX2 said in a statement.

“Initial assessments confirm that one blade snapped. The broken part has landed at the foot of the wind turbine.

“A part remains attached to the wind turbine, and no hanging part can be found at the time of the inspection.”

The immediate area around the turbine has been secured, OX2 said, adding that personnel located at the wind farm are monitoring the site.

An investigation is issued together with the turbine manufacturer and the owner to determine the cause of the incident.

GE Vernova said it was working with its customers to investigate the event, but had no other comment than confirming the incident happened and that there were no injuries.

The area around the wind farm has been cordoned off, and the cause of the breakdown is being investigated, according to Sveriges Radio.

Local residents according to regional newspaper Jämtlandstidning were complaining about not getting sufficient information about the accident.

“We don't know what's happening because we're not told anything,” Terese Björk, who witnessed the broken blade on Friday, told the newspaper.

The first blade break at the wind farm was probably caused by a manufacturing defect, and the second was damaged during installation, OX2 told Sveriges Radio earlier, following an investigation into the incident.

Björkvattnet in September 2019 was one of the early projects to place an order for the US manufacturer’s new 5MW-plus Cypress machines, which were unveiled in late 2018 featuring the option to use a “revolutionary” two-piece carbon blade designed to aid installation logistics.

Sparsely populated northern Sweden earlier this decade lived through a wind power boom that was fueled by the power thirst of data centres and efforts to decarbonise heavy industry and mining.

The boom has since come to a near standstill due to a proliferation of municipal vetoes against new wind farms, Green Power Sweden said in a new report last week.

Next to the troubles at blades at the Cypress onshore model, GE in 2024 also suffered a blade break at its Haliade-X offshore wind turbine at the Vineyard wind farm off the US state of Massachusetts.

The manufacturer had to pay the town of Nantucket $10.5m in damages as scattered fibreglass debris had polluted coastal waters and beaches.

GE Vernova in 2025 blamed a “manufacturing deviation” involving adhesive bonding for the offshore blade break and assured that corrective action had been taken.

UPDATED to add statement by wind farm manager OX2 and by GE Vernova.