Vineyard Wind 1 turbine experiences undisclosed damage

One of the installed turbines at the Vineyard Wind wind farm. (Photo courtesy of Avangrid)

The two developers of Vineyard Wind 1 disclosed on Monday that a turbine blade at the wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts experienced undisclosed damage on Saturday night and the manufacturer, GE Vernova, is conducting an analysis “into the root cause of the incident.”

The developers provided no details about what happened. The incident is the second involving the new GE Haliade-X 13-megawatt turbines, which are some of the largest in the world.

The first incident occurred in May at a large wind farm going up off the coast of England at the so-called Dogger Bank project. According to press reports, a previously installed Haliade-X blade crumpled. A subsequent investigation revealed that it was an “isolated blade event” caused by a problem during installation.

The large Haliade-X turbines are just coming off GE’s assembly line and developers are buying them despite the absence of any sort of lengthy track record because the enormous blades are expected to allow the companies to produce electricity with fewer turbines, saving them a lot of money.

The Nantucket Current included pictures from the captain of a fishing charter boat that was in the area Saturday. Those pictures appeared to show green colored debris, but it was unclear whether that debris was from the wind farm.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Maura Healey’s administration said state officials had been briefed on the incident, but she supplied no additional details.

“There is a rigorous, federally approved safety process in place and we will continue to monitor the situation closely as Vineyard Wind, GE, and the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement conduct an analysis of the cause and their next steps. We are grateful to the trained personnel who addressed the situation so quickly,” said Maria Hardiman of the state Energy and Environmental Affairs office.

Vineyard Wind 1 is being built jointly by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. The wind farm is slated to have 62 turbines when construction is completed; a portion of the turbines have already been installed and are generating electricity. It’s unclear whether the damaged turbine was already generating electricity.

The two developers said no personnel or third parties were in the vicinity of the turbine at the time of the incident. The companies said a perimeter around the damaged turbine was established, the Coast Guard was notified, and GE Vernova was called in to conduct its analysis.

“As that analysis takes place, Vineyard Wind will continue working with federal, state, and local stakeholders to ensure the health and safety of its workforce, mariners, and the environment,” the company said in a brief statement.

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

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