Offshore

Another GE Vernova blade fails

Another GE Vernova blade fails

UPDATE 9/3/24: Dogger Bank Wind Farm says it “has been working closely with turbine manufacturer, GE Vernova, to investigate the root cause of the event,” on August 22.

GE Vernova analysis has shown that this blade event was not caused by an installation or manufacturing issue but instead occurred during the commissioning process, when the turbine was left in a fixed and static position, rendering it vulnerable during a subsequent storm with high winds.

The surrounding marine area at the site remains restricted in line with safety procedures. Installation activities at the site will restart in the coming days, per Dogger Bank Wind Farm.

The offshore wind industry is waking up to more disheartening news- another GE Vernova turbine blade has failed, this one off the northeast coast of England.

The failure occurred Thursday morning on an installed GE Vernova’s Haliade-X turbine at Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm, a joint venture between SSE Renewables (40%), Equinor (40%), and Vårgrønn (20%), which is currently under construction. “No one was injured or in the vicinity at the time the damage was sustained,” reads a brief statement on the project’s website.

The surrounding marine area has been restricted and authorities have been notified of the incident. GE Vernova has initiated an investigation into the cause of the blade failure, which is the second to occur at the Dogger Bank Wind Farm. In fact, if you just manually delete the “2” at the end of the URL linking you to the statement above, you’ll find a very similar statement from the previous incident back in May.

GE Vernova’s Haliade-X turbine blade is the same model installed at Vineyard Wind southwest of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts, where a “manufacturing deviation” resulted in a blade breaking off and falling into the ocean on July 13. For weeks afterward, fiberglass and other debris washed ashore New England beaches; Vineyard Wind operations are still suspended, although installation of towers and nacelles has since resumed while an investigation into the blade failure and its larger impact continues.

Submit a case study! We want to hear about what you’re working on. Submit a case study with the chance to be featured in Renewable Energy World. 

The blade that caused the Vineyard Wind incident was fabricated at the LM Wind Power factory in Gaspé, Canada, one of two places where the Haliade-X blades are made. GE Vernova said in a recent earnings call that the company will reinspect all of the blades manufactured at that plant. The other factory in Cherbourg, France has also made recent headlines for the wrong reasons after an “operational incident” involving a mold used to make a Haliade-X component back in April.

Dogger Bank is being built in an area ranging from 80 to 118 miles off England’s coast. The project is being developed in three phases which will collectively comprise “the world’s largest wind farm” when completed. Each phase is planned to have an installed generation capacity of 1.2 GW. SSE Renewables is leading the development and construction of the project, and Equinor will operate the wind farm upon completion and during its expected operational life of around 35 years.