Wind Power

Weeks later, Vineyard Wind blade debris is still washing ashore

Weeks later, Vineyard Wind blade debris is still washing ashore
The final blade is installed on the first GE Haliade-X Turbine for the Vineyard Wind 1 Project. (Photo: Business Wire)

Is there anything more magical than walking the beach and finding a treasure washed ashore? Ooh, a message in a bottle! Check out that shiny sea shell! And watch out for that… turbine debris?

Several weeks after a suspected “manufacturing deviation” caused a Vineyard Wind blade to shatter at sea, remnants from the incident are still washing up on Massachusetts beaches. This week, more suspected Vineyard Wind debris washed up on Cape Cod’s shore, NBC Boston reports, in addition to beaches in Chatham and Falmouth.

In a statement, Falmouth said it found what is believed to be wind turbine debris in the water and on the shoreline at Black Beach, Cahpoquoit Beach, Woodneck Beach, and Old Silver Beach. Vineyard Wind sent clean-up crews Tuesday to remove what remains.

On July 14, Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, experienced an “incident” involving blade damage on one of its turbines. Vineyard Wind said none of its employees or contractors were in the area at the time of the incident, and no injuries were reported. Several days after the incident, the joint venture began mobilizing debris recovery teams on Nantucket to survey the southern-facing beaches of the island for the recovery of debris.

GE, which produces the Haliade-X turbines used in Vineyard Wind, conducted its own investigation and concluded that a “manufacturing deviation” was to blame.

“Our preliminary investigation of the event indicates that the affected blade experienced a manufacturing deviation; in this case, insufficient bonding that the quality assurance program should have identified,” GE Vernova said in a statement. “There is no indication of an engineering design flaw in the blade or information connecting this blade event to the blade event we experienced at an offshore wind project in the UK, which was caused by an installation error out at sea. Our investigation is ongoing, and we are working with urgency to scrutinize our blade manufacturing and quality assurance program across offshore wind.”

Shortly after the incident, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said that operations at Vineyard Wind had been suspended until it could be determined whether the “blade failure” impacted other turbine blades on the development. As a result, power production on the lease area has been suspended and installation of new wind turbine generator construction is also on hold.

Vineyard Wind is located about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. The wind farm is still under construction but has sent first power, with 136 MW operational. Once fully operational, Vineyard Wind 1 will deliver 806 MW.

This article contains reporting from the Associated Press.

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