Massive Big Wind Project Off Massachusetts Coast Suffers Another Big Blow

Massive Big Wind Project Off Massachusetts Coast Suffers Another Big Blow

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.  

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