First US offshore wind farm powers back up after blade break, under strict new conditions

More than six months after suffering a messy turbine blade break, the 800MW Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts, has been approved to restart generating power.

A suspected “manufacturing deviation” is believed to have caused one of the GE Vernova turbine blades installed at the wind farm to crumple back in July – delivering a major blow to the first offshore wind farm to be built in the US.

The 107-metre turbine blade subsequently broke into pieces, causing debris to begin washing up on nearby Nantucket beaches over the following weeks.

Investigations pinpointed the likely culprit as a “manufacturing deviation” caused during production at GE Vernova’s facility in Gaspe, Canada – a fault which Vineyard Wind acknowledged “should have been identified through the quality assurance process at the blade manufacturing facility.”

The incident halted continued construction of the project as well as halted operation of the already completed turbines.

Operations have restarted, however, following approval from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BESS), which lifted its suspension order following approval of a revised construction and operations plan (COP) submitted in December by Vineyard Wind.

Specifically, Vineyard Wind will no longer be able to use wind turbine blades manufactured at GE Vernova’s Canada facility, and all blades already installed at the site that originated from the Canadian facility must be removed.

Vineyard Wind said that it will need to remove blades form a maximum of 22 turbines which had already been installed by the time of the incident.

Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova must also demonstrate that any newly manufactured blades must meet certain design and safety criteria while also ensuring that the blade monitoring system is operating properly and will shut down if any future blade damage is detected.

A spokesperson for BSEE also said that Vineyard Wind “must continue to take ongoing actions to complete the site-specific study that evaluates the environmental harm and other damage from the blade failure,” as previously ordered by the agency in September. 

The new COP was approved by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) late last week – one of the last actions taken during the Biden administration ahead of the return of Donald Trump, who has promised to suspend all offshore wind construction activities.

“Following months of extensive work and collaboration with the federal interagency, GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind developed a detailed and rigorous approach to safely resume the construction and operation of the project,” said a Vineyard Wind spokesperson over the weekend.

“Friday’s action cements this plan as a modification to the COP, which strengthens the project’s construction program, ensuring that this rigorous approach will guide all project activities in perpetuity.”