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Aug 29, 2023

Watch as wind turbine snaps, collapses in Germany after possible lightning strike

A man in Germany recorded video of a massive wind turbine snapping and collapsing after a storm on Monday. He also recorded video after the collapse and showed pieces of the wind turbine in an

A man in Germany recorded video of a massive wind turbine snapping and collapsing after a storm on Monday. He also recorded video after the collapse and showed pieces of the wind turbine in an adjacent field.

MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN, Germany - A man in Germany recorded a video showing the moment a wind turbine snapped and collapsed to the ground a week after a strong thunderstorm moved through the region.

According to a report from Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), residents in the area reported that the wind turbine had been making strange noises ever since the storm a week prior. Thomas Schröder, a farmer who lives in the area, told NDR that he saw the wind turbine getting struck by lightning during the storm.

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A collapsed wind turbine is seen in Germany.

(Thomas Schröder via Storyful)

"A lightning strike must have hit the turbine because from that time on the wind turbine made very loud noises. These increased daily," Schröder told Storyful.

Schröder's video shows the rapidly-spinning wind turbine slanting downwards before snapping and falling to the ground. The turbine blades are then seen in the video broken into fragments and scattered across a field.

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According to NDR, a renewable energies official said that a lightning strike wouldn’t significantly affect a wind turbine because lightning would be discharged into the ground. But on rare occasions, technical issues could have caused it to collapse.

According to witnesses, a 5-meter (15 feet) section of the blades broke off after the storm, and the rest of the turbine kept spinning.

That caused the imbalance, and when strong winds battered the region on Tuesday, it couldn’t withstand the force, and it snapped and collapsed to the ground, according to NDR.