Offshore

Most of the rest of damaged Vineyard Wind blade falls into ocean

Most of the rest of damaged Vineyard Wind blade falls into ocean
GE Haliade-X Turbines Stand in the Vineyard Wind 1 Project Area South of Martha’s Vineyard. (Photo Credit: Worldview Films)

by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Beacon

Vineyard Wind 1 officials said a “significant part” of the damaged 107-meter blade that was still clinging to a wind farm turbine fell into the ocean Thursday morning and warned residents of Nantucket and other coastal communities to brace for more debris washing up on their beaches.

Nantucket residents, who turned out in force at a Select Board meeting Wednesday evening, some of them describing the initial blade damage and resulting debris as an environmental disaster, knew more bad news was likely coming.

About two hours into the Wednesday meeting, Klaus Skoust Moeller, the chief executive officer of Vineyard Wind, said he had to leave the meeting because he had been notified there was an emergency with the remainder of the blade that had been hanging from the turbine.

Select Board Chair Brooke Mohr told Moeller to go quickly. “This is the definition of crisis management. Things change by the moment,” she said.

A statement released Thursday morning by the wind farm operators Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners said maritime crews had been preparing for the blade falling into the sea, but indicated there was relatively little they could do because of “challenging weather conditions.”

“We have deployed additional crews to Nantucket Island in anticipation that more debris could wash ashore tonight and tomorrow as we continue to monitor additional coastal communities,” the companies said. “If debris is found by members of the public, property owners, or local officials, they are advised to immediately contact our reporting hotline: 833-609-5768.”

The debris so far has consisted primarily of foam and fiberglass, the inner workings of the blade. It was unclear whether the blade broke apart entirely when it fell into the ocean or whether it remained largely intact. That could make a big difference in the cleanup effort.

Before he left the Select Board meeting Wednesday night, Moeller said a ship with a boom has been deployed in the area but indicated it was unlikely it would be able to capture all the debris.

At the Select Board hearing, members of the panel and the public raised a host of concerns about the debris washing up on Nantucket. They worried about the potential for environmental damage and the danger of sharp-edged fiberglass on beaches.

Vineyard Wind officials and representatives of GE Vernova, the manufacturer of the wind farm’s turbine and blades, sought to reassure the public but didn’t have immediate answers to many of their questions.

“Something like this is highly unusual and rare,” said Roger Martella, chief sustainability officer and head of government affairs at GE Vernova. He flew in from Europe for the meeting but couldn’t get a flight to Nantucket so ended up joining via Zoom from Hyannis.

Martella said all the material from the damaged turbine blade is being gathered to assess what happened. He said data from the wind farm is also being examined looking for anomalies.

Select Board member Matt Fee wondered whether a lightning strike on Saturday caused the initial damage, but GE officials said they had seen no burn marks on any of the material that had been gathered so far.

Vineyard Wind 1, regarded as the first industrial scale wind farm in the United States, is still under construction, although work has been halted since the damage to the turbine blade occurred on Saturday night. The wind farm is using a relatively new-to-market giant turbine called Haliade-X designed by GE Vernova. A single turbine is capable of generating 13 megawatts of power. Once completed, Vineyard Wind is expected to have 62 turbines.

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.