Introduction

In the Asir and Jazan provinces of Southwest Saudi Arabia, lightning strikes pose a growing threat to the Kingdom’s ambitious wind-power expansion. With Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 targeting 40GW of wind capacity by 2030 and a national push to source 50% of power from renewables, every strike avoided translates directly into megawatts saved and millions in costs averted.^[1] The growth in Saudi Arabia’s wind power generation continues beyond 2030; according to GlobalData, Saudi Arabia’s onshore wind power will grow at a CAGR of 22% during 2023-2035.^[2] As such, effective lightning-risk management is no longer optional – it’s integral to the resilience and financial viability of Middle East and North Africa’s (MENA) wind-energy rollout.

Historic and forecast wind power generation capacity, 2015-2035

In this article, we highlight how mitigating the threat of lightning-strikes poses a significant challenge for the region’s ambitious wind energy roll out. We will take a closer look at how renewable-energy professionals and policymakers in MENA can address this threat by safeguarding wind investments, optimising uptime, and ensuring alignment with national climate targets. To do this we will cover the following topics:

1. The Cost of a Strike: How Lightning Impacts Turbine Availability

So, when lightning strikes, how are wind turbines impacted? Unfortunately, wind turbines present multiple targets for lightning. Whether it’s the rotating blades, tall steel tower, or even the electronics hidden within the turbine’s nacelle, all are at risk of being struck directly or indirectly by a lightning strike.

Direct & Indirect Damage

• Direct strikes most often attach to blade tips or nacelles, with high voltages resulting in temperatures above 30,000°C, puncturing composites, melting adhesives, and shattering fiberglass layers.^[3]
• Indirect effects from ground flashes induce voltage surges in control circuits, compromising sensors, SCADA systems, and communications.

And it’s not only big, dramatic strikes that cause problems. Even smaller, repeat lightning strikes can cause hidden structural degradation over time, which reduces the design life of turbines. Crucially, maintenance workers may then face increased safety hazards when working on turbines that have been struck but not yet properly inspected or repaired.

Financial Consequences

Of course, lightning not only poses risks to the assets themselves and the maintenance personnel carrying out work on them, strikes also have severe financial consequences. The costs of unplanned downtime can be heavy – and not only due to inspection, repair and replacement of damaged parts, but also for loss of production, all of which impact the financial performance of wind projects. For example, did you know that:

• Lightning is the single largest cause of unplanned downtime and the most common insurance claim for wind-farm owners, according to DNV, a leading certification authority for the wind energy industry.^[4]
• The 1-3% of damaging strikes cost the global industry over $100 million annually, accounting for 60% of blade losses and nearly 20% of operational outages.^[5]
• In the US, some storm-prone wind farms lose up to 85% of first-year availability due to early lightning damage – underscoring why downtime mitigation is critical.^[6]

Strike Frequency Estimates

Now it’s clear that lightning strike damage can have a significant impact, but how often does this actually occur?

A turbine with a height of 100m, in a moderately lightning-prone area, can expect to be exposed to lightning strikes up to 10 times per year, with higher counts in elevated storm corridor such as those discussed for MENA.^[7] Over a 100-turbine farm, this can translate to dozens of lightning incidents each year – many requiring inspection, repair, or replacement.^[7]

And if that isn’t enough, a study by the University of California highlighted that a 1°C increase in temperature increases frequency of lightning by 12% ^[8] – so in a warming world, lightning is only going to become an increasingly important risk to for the wind industry to mitigate.

2. MENA’s Lightning Hotspots:

Where Wind Farms Are at Risk

So, how exactly does lightning strike frequency play out in the MENA region? In Saudi Arabia, the areas that are home to some of the Kingdom’s best wind resources, such as Asir and Jazan, are also the areas which experience the highest frequency of lightning strikes, making the challenge for the region somewhat of a “catch 22”.

The variation in the frequency of lightning strikes at a national and localised level is clearly illustrated when measured over a given area – known as ‘lightning density’. While Saudi Arabia sees a national average lightning density of 2.05 events/km², localised lightning densities in the country’s southwestern regions spike well above the national average; Asir and Jazan saw local highs in excess of 100 events/km², making these mountainous corridors lightning hotspots.^[9]

Therefore, lightning strikes are a key operational risk for wind energy projects in the country’s southwestern regions.^[10]

Elsewhere, Yemen’s highlands, Western Morocco, and Algeria’s Tell Atlas similarly combine strong wind resources with elevated lightning risk, posing a threat to wind projects in these areas.^[9][10]Source: Vaisala Global Lightning Statistics 2021 ^[11]

3. Best-Practice Defences: Hardware & Operational Strategies

We’ve seen how lightning strikes can cause all sorts of damage to wind farm infrastructure, and that it can occur frequently enough to not be ignored. But what approaches can wind operators employ to minimize risk? Below we outline some key considerations ^[13]:

Prevention

1. Lightning Protection Systems (LPS)

• Such as receptors on blades and nacelles, conductors to channel currents safely to the base of towers, electrodes to enhance grounding (per IEC 62305 guidelines).
• Design verification (via IEC 61400-24 certification)

2. Surge Protection Devices (SPDs)

• Installed on all power and data cables to absorb short, sharp spikes in voltage

   

3. Digital Twin & Simulation

• Scenario modelling of strike impacts on power output.
• Preventive maintenance scheduling

4. User-friendly Dashboards

• Micro-siting (exact siting of individual turbines) to avoid higher risk land features (such as elevations, certain rock types or bodies of water).
• Turbine spacing to reduce risk of neighbouring turbines being impacted by the same lightning strike 

Preparedness

5. Proactive Inspections & Maintenance

• Blade-health monitoring (visaual, drones, acoustic)
• Lightning-strike counters and software flags

6. Meteorological Monitoring & Early Warning

• Real-time lightning-map integrations
• Automated shutdown protocols when strike risk exceeds thresholds

7. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

• Co-ordinated shutdown, inspection, and crew-dispatch workflows
• Safety checklists compliant with local labour regulations

8. Vendor & Supply-Chain Preparedness

• Pre-negotiated spare-parts agreements
• Regional maintenance hubs to minimize transport delays

Response

9. Insurance & Finance

• Detailed risk assessments to negotiate lower premiums
• Bundled coverage for hardware, downtime, and revenue loss

Conclusion

While Saudi Arabia accelerates towards 40GW of wind by 2030, it is clear that lightning – and the significant risks that spawn from it must be managed proactively.
Fortunately, the industry has multiple tools at its disposal. By combining prevention, preparedness and rapid response all brought together by the AI-powered orchestration of Qarar, renewable-energy professionals and policymakers in MENA can safeguard the region’s wind investments, optimise uptime, and deliver ambitious national climate targets.
In the words of Ard Group, “Knowledge is key to resilience” – and in this high-stakes game, data-driven readiness makes the difference between storm-ridden loss and steady, storm-proof power generation.
 

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