WindEurope 2026
Meteorage, Europe’s leading reference partner for lightning risk management

Thunderstorms and lightning represent one of the most critical environmental risks for the wind energy sector in Europe. As wind fleets expand, turbines grow taller, and renewable assets operate increasingly exposed locations, lightning risk management has become a core operational issue, directly impacting safety, availability, performance and insurance costs.

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21 April 2026

According to DNV, lightning damage is the leading cause of unplanned downtime for wind turbines, and a most common reason for insurance claims filed by wind farm owners. Yet lightning remains a highly localized and difficult‑to‑interpret hazard, requiring precise, real‑time and site‑specific intelligence to support operational decisions.

As a lightning detection expert since 1987, Meteorage supports wind operators across Europe with high‑resolution lightning data, alerts and decision‑support tools designed specifically for wind farm design, operation, maintenance and repowering.

At WindEurope Madrid, we present lightning detection as a critical operational layer for wind energy resilience.

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Also to discover at WindEurope 2026

📌 Scientific poster PO193
“From Early Warning to Targeted Inspections:
A Before–During–After Framework for Lightning Risk Management in Wind O&M”
by Stéphane Schmitt, Lightning Application Expert – Meteorage

🔎 This study presents a structured operational approach, already applied across European wind fleets covering several thousand turbines, in order to:

anticipate thunderstorms (48‑hour forecasts, alerts up to 1 hour ahead),
assess storm severity and movement,
trigger more targeted and efficient post‑event inspections, based on lightning impact reports.

To find out more

Find out how to facilitate the maintenance of your wind turbines

Thanks to the Lightning Check Advisor solution, the day after each storm you automatically receive an email listing the wind turbines likely to have been struck by lightning. Now you can save time without compromising the safety of your teams, thanks to optimised inspections.

Sheltering from Thunderstorms: An Evaluation of Lightning Locating Systems to Prevent Risk

In this article published in Windtech International, Stéphane Schmitt, Lightning Expert at METEORAGE, explains how Lightning Location Systems (LLS) can provide early warning, bearing in mind that operators need sufficient warning to be able to apply safety procedures.