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Massive Big Wind Project Off Massachusetts Coast Suffers Another Big Blow

Massive Big Wind Project Off Massachusetts Coast Suffers Another Big Blow

The outlook is not good for the ocean industrialists.  

With debris from its July 13th blade disaster still washing up on New England shores, news broke Wednesday that Vineyard Wind, the troubled turbine company leasing ocean off the coast of Nantucket, will be removing more blades from its current project.

“We have finalized root cause analysis and confirm the blade at issue at Vineyard Wind was caused by a manufacturing deviation from our factory in Canada,” GE Vernova CEO Steve Strazik said on the company’s earnings call. 

On Tuesday, The Federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued an updated suspension order for Vineyard Wind stopping the company from resuming power, blade installation, or conducting any activity on the damaged turbine. After a comprehensive blade safety inspection which included drones and an ultrasound re-examination of the blades, the blade manufacturer announced that it intends to remove and replace some blades while strengthening others at the project south of Nantucket. 

During his Wednesday morning earnings call with investors, Strazik said a number of blades with a manufacturing deviation were found. “In offshore we’ve had a difficult four months, and are disappointed given the impact on our customers and on our financial results, with a significant loss we took this quarter.” Manufacturer GE Vernova said its analysis concluded the failure occurred in the commissioning process. It is the third blade failure for the manufacturer. In the United Kingdom, two blades broke at the Dogger Bank wind farm resulting in major financial losses for the company. 

Neither Vineyard Wind nor blade manufacturer GE Vernova commented on why a number of blades were seen being transported from New Bedford back to a manufacturing plant in Cherbourg, France earlier this month. Officials from both companies have declined to comment on the shipment. 

While the Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island uses a different blade manufacturer (Siemens Gamesa), the projects are intricately linked within the same area. All of these projects have been greenlit at lightning speed. Could the coming election be to blame for the sense of urgency wind companies are under? At a rally this past spring in Wildwood, NJ, former President Donald Trump famously vowed to issue an executive order to “end” wind construction, “on day one,” if elected. “We are going to make sure that ends on day one, I’m going to write it out as an executive order,” Trump said.

For years fisherman, marine life, and ocean advocates have been waving the flag on the loosened regulatory process and lightening approval speed of these projects. Jerry Leeman, founder & CEO of the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA), called out the company on Wednesday. “It is now obvious that foreign mega developers and their political allies cut corners to bring their flagship project online. Despite the compounding safety concerns at Vineyard Wind, lease auctions loom for wind farms in the Gulf of Maine, the culmination of a rushed regulatory process. There is no doubt that speed has taken precedence over safety and conservation for offshore wind.” 

Is this the beginning of the end for Big Wind and their projects along the Atlantic seaboard? With Wednesday’s surprise unanimous vote and announcement by the Maria Mitchell Association, an original co-signers of the Good Neighbor Agreement between Nantucket and Vineyard Wind, that they will be exiting the agreement and with a second Trump presidency looming, the outlook is not good for the ocean industrialists.  

RI/MA The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Area(s)

 

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Comments


 
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RepublicanRJL | October 30, 2024 at 7:07 am

Why wasn’t this ‘manufacturing deviation’ noticed prior to shipment to the turbines and why wasn’t this ‘manufacturing deviation’ noticed during installation?


 
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Disgusted | October 30, 2024 at 8:06 am

Not sure why anyone is surprised. Crony capitalism never ends well. Simple solution: (1) no government subsidies for “renewables”–each project must live or die on its economic merits and (2) no utility may purchase renewable power on anything but a firm basis–the renewable generating company must deliver power regardless of whether the wind blows or the sub shines and is responsible for the replacement cost of the power it must deliver–and, of course, any renewable generator must have sufficient economic substance to pay the replacement cost. Only when the true costs of “renewables” are known can the market make intelligent sourcing decisions. Right now, the government mandates the purchase of unreliable renewables, subsidizes the renewable companies, and shifts the cost of failure to the rate payers. In short, government screws up pretty much everything it touches–let the “invisible hand” on the marketplace–not leftist government bureaucrats identify the winners and the losers. This really isn’t that complicated.


 
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Whitewall | October 30, 2024 at 8:32 am

Aha! it’s those deviant manufacturers.


 
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gonzotx | October 30, 2024 at 8:51 am

Actually there are several large wind projects approved for the Atlantic coast

It’s terrifying


 
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Tsquared79 | October 30, 2024 at 9:00 am

Be sure to ship those defective blades back to Canada.


 
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Ironclaw | October 30, 2024 at 9:43 am

More stupid government doing crap it’s unsuited for. We would be so much better off if the stupid government would limit itself to what the constitution enables.


 
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E Howard Hunt | October 30, 2024 at 10:08 am

God tempers the wind to the shorn taxpayer.

The august Woke-captured Sierra Club:

we must all work to ensure that the failure of a single turbine blade does not adversely impact the emergence of offshore wind as a critical solution for reducing dependence on fossil fuels and addressing the climate crisis.
[…]
There are rigorous processes in place with federal, state, and local governments to regulate the offshore wind industry as it grows
[…]
Here comes the deflection…

Some of us are old enough to remember 1976, when the Argo Merchant tanker sank just a few miles to the east of Vineyard Wind’s site.

https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2024/07/sierra-club-statement-vineyard-wind-blade-incident

I am a retired Electrical Engineer and I have seen Wind Farms and Solar Farms in California over time. The wind turbines in the Altamont Pass in Northern California has many that have stopped working, but the Wind Farm yearly kills millions of birds on their N-S treks. Overall the Solar Farms also die after years. They require more physical connections and more people working on the equipment plus the equipment has toxic materials and hazardous waste. This waste is seen easily in the off shore Wind Farms on the beaches.

All of these have issues compared to power plants powered by Natural Gas, Oil, Biofuel, or Nuclear, These will last longer and will power much more with less area needed for the power plant.

Wind Project Suffers Another Big Blow.

Nice sense of humor. Gonna blow the wind project away.


 
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henrybowman | October 30, 2024 at 10:59 pm

Aw, look! Narragansett Electric’s lease map is a cute little tiny sailboat!
Who did the lease planning — Maggie Simpson?

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