Nantucket Considers Suing Vineyard Wind as More Turbine Debris Washes Up on Its Shores

Nantucket Considers Suing Vineyard Wind as More Turbine Debris Washes Up on Its Shores

I reported that beaches in Nantucket were closed because of the failure of Vineyard Wind’s newly installed wind turbines.

The beaches were being cluttered with sharp fiberglass shards, which is a sub-optimum condition to have at the height of the summer tourist season.

Nantucket beaches are still being slammed with turbine debris.

Additional debris from a damaged wind turbine blade was found off the coast of Nantucket on Sunday morning, more than a week after chunks of fiberglass from the damaged turbine began washing ashore and just days after the blade fell from an offshore wind turbine and sunk to the ocean floor.

The debris was discovered by the Nantucket Harbormaster offshore near Madequecham Valley Road, Vineyard Wind, the company building the offshore wind energy farm, said in a brief statement. Beach crews were sent to the scene and an aerial survey of the area near where the debris was found was conducted by helicopter.

The town is now weighing whether to sue Vineyard Winds over this incident.

In response to the ongoing crisis on the island, the Nantucket Select Board will meet in executive session on Tuesday to discuss “potential litigation in connection with Vineyard Wind” regarding recovery costs associated with the blade failure, according to an online meeting notice.

Representatives from GE and Vineyard Wind will give an update at Wednesday’s regularly scheduled Select Board meeting. The engineering firm Aracadis is also expected to complete an environmental assessment soon, which they will present at the Wednesday meeting.

The turbine, manufactured by GE Vernova, is part of the Vineyard Wind project, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

Vineyard Wind, the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farm, began delivering energy from five of the planned 63 wind turbines in February. The farm is about 15 miles south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

Due to the blade failure, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has since ordered Vineyard Wind to cease power production until it can determine if other turbines could be affected.

Meanwhile, more turbine debris is washing up along the area around Cape Cod.

Debris from the damaged GE Vernova wind turbine blade was found about 3.5 miles southeast of Monomoy Island in Chatham, according to Vineyard Wind.

After the Chatham harbormaster’s office reported on Friday afternoon that debris was in that area, nine vessels were dispatched there, according to a press release from Vineyard Wind. Debris was recovered around 4:30 p.m. and smaller debris was later found nearby.

Vessels continued to collect debris throughout Friday evening and during the day Saturday. Beginning at 4 a.m. on Saturday, helicopter flyovers began over the Chatham and Monomoy areas.

The discovery associated with the lawsuit may prove to be most interesting.

As debris from the Vineyard Wind turbine continues to disrupt the local ecosystem and economy, it's important to remember that the Biden administration allowed this project to go forward despite federal laws requiring them to ensure safety and environmental protection. pic.twitter.com/HvO4gufGAy

— Texas Public Policy Foundation (@TPPF) July 18, 2024

“Experts” were touting bigger and better wind farms, even floating ones, and the eco-activists in the Biden/Harris administration were thrilled.

When it comes to offshore wind farms, things are big. Turbine blades are big, the posts that support them are big. You need a place to put these before you install them, so it becomes crucial to find big fields of “lay down space” on the East Coast, where you can ship these things in from the factory and set them down while you’re waiting to go install them.

The size of the available ports and infrastructure becomes really important when you talk about scaling this industry up in a meaningful way. I mean, you can find lay down space relatively easily when you’re dealing with only five windmills that need to be installed offshore—but can you do it for 5,000? Because that’s roughly the scale of the Biden administration goal.

It’s just a matter of time before a famous New England Nor’easter slams into the region. Hopefully, the fiberglass clean-up crews will have perfected their techniques by then.

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