Posted on October 21, 2024
Crews started this week to retrieve and remove pieces of the shattered Vineyard Wind turbine blade that sunk to the ocean floor three months ago, a project that the company said could take as long as two weeks.
Vineyard Wind sent a “mariner update” Wednesday to caution boaters, fishing outfits and anyone else on the waters that a 250-foot crane ship will be in the area of the turbine “AW38” from this past Tuesday and for up to two weeks. The ship will use a remotely-operated submarine and its crane during “operations to recover seafloor debris associated with the GE VERNOVA blade failure,” Vineyard Wind said.
A July 13 “blade incident” at the under-construction Vineyard Wind 1 project left a broken GE Vernova-manufactured blade dangling over, and then plunging into, the Atlantic Ocean. The blade failure polluted the ocean and beaches while the company’s response revealed greater friction between the energy industry and coastal communities.
Project officials have resumed limited activities, but have not powered back up while a federal investigation continues.
The town of Nantucket said this week that GE Vernova had informed it that “subsea debris recovery began on Sunday (10/13/24), with the successful lift of the first piece of debris.” The town said the “lift” of first piece of debris brought up from the seabed “proceeded smoothly, and no ‘break-off’ debris was detected.”
GE Vernova, the company selected by Vineyard Wind to manufacture its project’s blades and turbines, said in late July that it had “no indications of an engineering design flaw” that could have caused the blade failure, but instead thinks it was a result of an issue in the manufacturing process, specifically “insufficient bonding.”
The company has since announced plans to scale back its offshore wind business, a move that the New York Times reported could lead to about 900 job losses at a time when many states including Massachusetts are trying to scale up offshore wind generation.
Before federal overseers ordered a halt, Vineyard Wind 1 had about 10 operational turbines that were delivering about 136 megawatts of power to the grid. Project developers plan to scale up to 62 turbines providing 806 MW, and Massachusetts and other states are involved in a years-long process to compel private companies to significantly expand the footprint of offshore wind energy in federally leased areas.
“It’s important that we bring this back online. It is a very, very important industry to Massachusetts. It’s very important for the clean energy future, and I’m confident we get there,” Gov. Maura Healey said of the project in August.
